The Histories: The Landmark Herodotus by Herodotus

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


I've studied Herodotus pretty extensively as he is the basis of a historical novel I just published.

Herodotus is known as the 'father of history' as his The Histories is the oldest history on record (excluding the Bible). The word historie in Greek means 'to inquire.' Herodotus lived about 50 years after the events of the Persian War, which at the time was probably like the World War II of its era. Herodotus was the first person we know of to travel around Greece methodically interviewing veterans who'd been taken part in the war (the same way Ken Burns interviewed WW2 vets for his documentary The War.)

Where Herodotus gets knocked around by modern historians is that he did not check his facts. A lot of what he records were out-right exaggerations and folklore. The classic example of this was his claim that Xerxes' Persian army numbered one million men. Modern historians claim it would have been impossible to feed that many people that far from home. Odds are, the ex-vets told him it was a million men, simply because it was a huge force and a million was the biggest number they knew. It's pretty much excepted that Xerxes' army was probably closer to 250,000 men. Still a huge force, compared to what Greece could muster.

The folklore comes into play when Herodotus talks about stories from places like Persia, Egypt and Libya. For instance, the stories that in Egypt there were flying snakes, in India there were ants the size of dogs that dug up gold, or that it was impossible to travel north of the Danube River because of all the bees. Some people try explaining these stories, but odds are, Herodotus simply inquired among people who dished out folklore rather than facts.

Still, Herodotus has a lot of good stories to tell. He's the one responsible for giving us the tale of King Leonidas and the last stand of the 300 Spartans at Thermopylae. He also reports about the Battle of Marathon, Battle of Plataea and the naval engagement at Salamis. When you read them, it's obvious Herodotus was not a mititary man as his descriptions are rather vague and confusing. He was more of a moralist than a true historian.

Thucydides is actually the better historian, and is known as the 'father of scientific history.' He was a general at Athens during the Peloponnesian War, so his knowledge of warefare is more detailed and a lot more accurate, as it seems he went to greater lengths to check his facts. Unfortunately, he did not complete his work. He stopped short of the end of the Peloponnesian War. Thankfully, Xenophon picked up the story and finished it in his Hellenica.

The Landmark Herodotus is a great edition, superior to the many other translations on the market as it includes maps on nearly every page, oft times of places that no longer exist, and it includes copious commentary. If you want to know more about the Persian Wars and you're going to pick up a copy of Herodotus' work, I'd go with this one.



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