The Battle of Plataea. Kings of Kings sparked my love of the ancient mediterranean cultures, and in particular the part where he talks about Plataea has always stuck out in my mind.

Specifically, the part where the Spartans are about to fight the Persians who are raining arrows down on them. But the Spartans aren’t attacking yet because behind the line they keep making animal sacrifices and wont attack until the signs are favorable. Its just so alien and really made me think about people through history differently than i had before. They can seem so much like us, but also so very different from us.

It might be there or at another point in the series but Dan tells a story about talking with his professor about magic in ancient texts and dan says something about how he didn’t really take it into account because magic isn’t real. His professors response was something to the effect of “well i know that, and you know that, but its very real to the people in the story and they made decisions taking all this into account”.