The Gates of Athens cover art

The Gates of Athens

Book One in the Athenian series

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

The Gates of Athens

By: Conn Iggulden
Narrated by: George Blagden
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Devour the latest epic tale of ancient Greece and Sunday Times top 5 bestseller from the author of War of the Roses.

On the plains of Marathon an army of slaves gathers . . .

Under Darius the Great, King of Kings, the mighty Persian army - swollen by 10,000 Immortal warriors - have come to subjugate the Greeks.

In their path stands an army of freeborn Athenians, and among them is fearsome and cunning soldier-statesman, Xanthippus.

Knowing defeat means slavery lends keenness to his already sharp blade . . .

Yet people soon forget that freedom is bought with blood.

Ten years later, Xanthippus watches helplessly as Athens succumbs to the bitter politics of factionalism, when the Persians cross the Hellespont in ever greater numbers to raze Athens to the ground.

Facing overwhelming forces by land and sea, the Athenians call on their Spartan allies for assistance - to delay the Persians at the treacherous pass of Thermopylae . . .

© Conn Iggulden 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

 Action & Adventure Ancient Europe Fiction Genre Fiction Greece Historical Fiction Science Fiction War & Military War Ancient History Ancient Greece Royalty

Listeners also enjoyed...

 EMPEROR: The Gates of Rome, Book 1 (Unabridged) cover art
Warrior: The epic story of Caratacus, warrior Briton and enemy of the Roman Empire… cover art
The Sunbird cover art
Athena's Champion cover art
A Prince of Troy cover art
Clash of Empires cover art
The Voyage of Odysseus cover art
Sword for Hire cover art
Alexander's Legacy: To the Strongest cover art
A Vanishing at Loxby Manor cover art
Emperor's Sword cover art
Killer of Men cover art
Kings of Paradise cover art
The Tenth Awakens cover art
Ilse Witch cover art
The Mill on the Floss cover art

Critic reviews

Thrilling retelling . . . It's a brilliant read, and his description of the Battle of Thermopylae is simply a stunning - and inspiring - piece of writing
Praise for Conn Iggulden (:)
An absolutely cracking story. The pace is nail-biting and the set dressing magnificent (-)
Absorbing and bloody (Antonia Senior)
Peopled with characters so finely honed the story becomes a gripping and glorious legend. Brilliant! (-)
Breathes new life into the darkest and most dramatic of times (-)
All stars
Most relevant
A superb retelling of the dawn of the Athenian hegemony littered will characters that actually existed and participated in these era defining events. Minor liberties are taken with the timeline for narrative reasons, but these are acknowledged by the author. If, like me, you have a non-academic interest in the ancient world, this story brings to life events that have resonated down the ages.

Superb and mostly accurate

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
A fascinating historical fiction very well read. The historical note at the end brining it all into context and placing it in real history added greatly.

A fascinating historical fiction very well read

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Decent Story - Poor Narration

A decent enough story but made it difficult to follow by the narrator. There was just no emotion or tonal change to his voice, it was read like he was going through the motions and could not wait to get through it most of the time.

Decent Story - Poor Narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
I love reading Conn Iggulden’s books and this was my first go at an audiobook. It had me gripped from start to finish.

Fantastic

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
As a lover of ancient Greek history I really enjoyed this. Well read. The story moved along at a great pace

Enjoyable

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews