Herodotus, the Seventh, Eight and Ninth Books, Vol. 1: With Introduction, Text, Apparatus, Commentary, Appendices, Indices, Maps; Part II, Books VIII and IX (Text and Commentaries)

Loeb Herodotus #4

by Herodotus

Excerpt from Herodotus, the Seventh, Eight and Ninth Books, Vol. 1: With Introduction, Text, Apparatus, Commentary, Appendices, Indices, Maps; Part II, Books VIII and IX (Text and Commentaries)


About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Classics

495 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 402

About the author

Herodotus (Greek: Ηρόδοτος) (c. 484 – c. 425 BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He is known for having written the Histories – a detailed account of the Greco-Persian Wars. Herodotus was the first writer to perform systematic investigation of historical events. He has been described as "The Father of History", a title conferred on him by the ancient Roman orator Marcus Tullius Cicero.
The Histories primarily cover the lives of prominent kings and famous battles such as Marathon, Thermopylae, Artemisium, Salamis, Plataea, and Mycale. His work deviates from the main topics to provide a cultural, ethnographical, geographical, and historiographical background that forms an essential part of the narrative and provides readers with a wellspring of additional information.
Herodotus has been criticized for his inclusion of "legends and fanciful accounts" in his work. The contemporaneous historian Thucydides accused him of making up stories for entertainment. However, Herodotus explained that he reported what he could see and was told. A sizable portion of the Histories has since been confirmed by modern historians and archaeologists.

Reviews

[Legens · Rating 3 out of 5]

Surprisingly straightforward for Herodotus - the last two books deal, almost uninterruptedly, with the battles at Salamis and Plataeae, respectively. The theme of Greek freedom remains supreme, but the hardships that come with it (which are so memorable in the many failed legations to other Greek poleis for help in book VII) now take the form of the commanders of individual city-states bickering over strategy before battles (to an almost unbelievable extent, given that the same commanders perform in unison in battles soon after).

[Nathan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Spoiler alert: the Greeks win.