Herodotus

The Landmark Herodotus: The Histories (Landmark Series.)

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The first six books of The Histories by Herodotus are a kind of Cook's Tour/ethnography of the world known to Herodotus. He tells us what he knows and has heard, which often amounts to tall tales from sailors. He knows something about India but never mentions Britain or Spain. The Hebrews/Israel get no mention, which makes sense because they have only recently been returned to Israel by the Persians during the period he is writing about.

It's interesting and sometimes amusing but not very important or historical.

Midway through Book Six, we run into the Battle of Marathon and The Histories turn into a “page-turner.” After Marathon, Xerxes builds up a huge army and navy to crush the Greeks. Herodotus takes us slowly through the Persian advance as the Persians conquer Thrace, Macedonia, and Thessaly. Greek city after Greek city “medize” by offering land and water to the Persians and become subject to the empire. Their armies are incorporated into the mighty Persian army. The Spartans delay the Persian army for a slight time at Thermopylae but it is not enough to keep the multinational army from conquering Athens and burning it to the ground.

It looks like it will be lights out for independent Greek culture. There will be no democracy, philosophy, early science or drama for us to treasure. Xerxes sits in the burning embers of Athens preparing to watch his mighty navy destroy the last of the Greek ships while the free Greeks bicker among themselves, each preparing to run back to their home cities.

Then, the Battle of Salamis happens and the Persian fleet is destroyed. Xerxes decides it will be best for him to leave Greece, but he also leaves 300,000 of his best men behind.

The Persians remain in northern Greece returning to burn whatever is left of Athens for a second time because the feckless Spartans refuse to march out from behind the wall they have built at the narrow Isthmus of Corinth to protect their own territory. The Athenians are justifiably outraged by Spartan betrayal. They threaten to form an alliance with Persia but give the Spartans one last chance.

The Spartans march out and link up the last of the free Greeks outside of Plataea, just south of Thebes, which is actively supporting the Persians. The Persians and Greeks face off against each other for a week. The Greeks withdraw and Persians strike. The future hangs in the balance.

Greek victory!

Rebellions break out among the Greeks in the Persian Empire.

Alexander the Great waits in the wings in the next century.

The last three and a half books of The Histories are an epically good read. A lot of fantasy novels, such as The Lord of the Rings, feature a giant empire that comes to crush the free West. The West faces extinction and is saved by a few clutch plays and a couple of lucky breaks. That's the story that Herodotus tells and it is the archetype for a lot of our fantasy novels thereafter.

Another resonance from history: The image of an emperor at the head of a huge multinational army sitting briefly in the enemy's burning capital before fleeing with a bare fraction of his army resonates with a premonition of a later emperor - Napoleon.

If you are going to read Herodotus, get the Landmark edition. The editors provide lots of maps to track the action, which is very important in the last four books. They have also included helpful pictures to illustrate some of the things mentioned and there are informative appendices to address various subjects that you might be wondering about.