To India and then to China, so that we can find out what was going on in these vast lands at the time of the Persian wars.

来到印度，然后去中国，这样我们可以知道波斯战争时期，在这些广阔的土地上发生了什么事。

At least until the Persian wars.

至少在波斯战争之前。

In Herodotus's telling, the Persian Wars began in 499 BCE, when the Athenians assisted a rebellion by Greeks living under Persian rule.

在希罗多徳的描述中，波斯战争开始于公元前499年，雅典人协助希腊人发起了一场反抗波斯统治的战争。

The Greco-Persian wars had further established  it as a military force with which to be reckoned.

希波战争进一步确立了它作为一支不可忽视的军事力量的地位。

After all, winning the Persian war set off the cultural flourishing that gave us the Classical Age.

毕竟，赢得波斯战争掀起了文化的繁荣，给我们带来了古典时代。

So here’s a non-rhetorical question: Did the right side win the Persian wars?

正确的一方赢得了波斯战争吗？

If so, it’s easy to argue that Greece should have lost the Persian Wars.

如果是这样，就很容易争辩说希腊应该输掉波斯战争。

And if you buy into this, you have to be glad that the Greeks won the Persian Wars.

如果你相信这一点，你一定会很高兴希腊人赢得了波斯战争。

The citizens of all the different states of ancient Greece seem to have served in this manner till after the second Persian war; and the people of Peloponnesus till after the Peloponnesian war.

直到第二次波斯战争之后，古希腊所有不同国家的公民似乎都以这种方式服役；和伯罗奔尼撒人民直到伯罗奔尼撒战争之后。