Finished "The History" by Herodotus

I didn't finish the whole book, only the three pieces that were listed this time from my Great Books reading list; namely, Polymnia, Urania, and Calliope.

I love reading Herodotus. Remember the movie 300? It's like reading the book, one battle after another and what this king said, or what that city tried to do. It's exciting.

Mardonius, one of Xerxes generals, says, "It were a monstrous thing if, after conquering and enslaving the Sacae, the Indians, the Ethiopians, the Asserians, and many other mighty nations, not for any wrong that they had done us, but only to increase our empire, we should then allow the Greeks, who have done us such wanton injury, to escape our vengeance. What is it that we fear in them? - not surly their numbers? - not the greatness of their wealth? We know the manner of their battle - we know how weak their power is; already have we subdued their children who dwell in our country, the Ionians, Aeolians, and Dorians."

The Persians were a warring people. According to the Greeks they were barbarians. They were pretty stinkin' fierce from what Herodotus writes. I'd like to read more about them from their own perspective and see how these same battles were portrayed differently. I've read before that if the Persians had taken over Greece (more than they did), things would be a lot different today. Most of our western heritage stems from Greece but if the Persians had won, maybe that history would be different. I know that they got pretty far in "conquering the world" and that they did some pretty heavy damage to Greece and Athens, but what was the turning point? What happened that made the Persians leave the area?