Troy invites war. Its location, where Europe and Asia meet, made it rich and visible. At Troy, the steel-blue water of the Dardanelles Straits pours into the Aegean and opens the way to the Black Sea. Although the north wind often blocked ancient shipping there,Troy has a protected harbor, and so it beckoned to merchants--and marauders. Walls, warriors, and blood were the city's lot.

...

THE TPOJAN WAR is one of history's most famous conflicts, a ten-year-long war waged over the beautiful Helen. For more than two thousand years this story has been a source of artistic inspiration. But is it true？

In The Trojan War historian and classicist Barry Strauss explores the myth and the reality behind the war, from Homer's accounts in The Iliad and The Odyssey to Heinrich Schliemann's discovery of ancientTroy in the late nineteenth century to more recent excavations that have yielded intriguing clues to the story behind the fabled city. TheTrojans, it turns out, were not ethnic Greeks but an Anatolian people closely allied with the Hittite Empire to the east. At the time oftheTrojanWar the Greeks were great seafarers whileTroy was a more settled civilization. And while the cause of the war may well have been the kidnapping of a queen--and,more signiflcaritly, the seizure of her royal dowry--the underlying cause was a conflict between theTrojans and the Greeks for control of the eastern Aegean Sea.

Through vivid reconstructions of the battles and insightful depictions of its famous characters, The Trojan War reveals the history behind Homer's great epic,without losing the poetry and grandeur of the epic myth.

Author's Note xi

Timetable of Events Relating to the Trojan War xiii

A Note on Ancient History and Archaeology xv

Introduction 1

CHAPTER ONE: War for Helen 13

CHAPTER Two: The Black Ships Sail 31

CHAPTER THREE: Operation Beachhead 49

CHAPTER FOUR: Assault on the Walls 69

CHAPTER FIVE: The Dirty War 85

CHAPTER SIX: An Army in Trouble 101

CHAPTER SEVEN: The Killing Fields 117

CHAPTER EIGHT: Night Moves 131

CHAPTER NINE: Hector's Charge 145

CHAPTER TEN: Achilles' Heel 159

CHAPTER ELEVEN: The Night of the Horse 171

Conclusion 183

Glossary of Key Names 191

Notes 199

A Note on Sources 225

Acknowledgments 247

Index 249