The Persians is the oldest surviving Greek tragedy and one of the few that deals with recent history rather than myth. It is set at the Persian court, where elders and the queen mother Atossa wait anxiously for news of King Xerxes and his great invasion of Greece. The play shows the war from the point of view of the defeated, with sympathy rather than triumph. It reflects on pride, overreach and the limits of human power, and it was first staged only eight years after the battle of Salamis.