The Persian War
“As near to the horse’s mouth, historically, as you’re likely to get to this epic conflict between Greece and Persia circa 480 BC. Herodotus’ Histories (this is a tiny extract) have been regularly plundered over twenty-five centuries by historians from Thucydides to Tom Holland. Forget 300, Hollywood’s take on Thermopylae. Listen to the way Herodotus sets the scene: ‘West of Thermopylae rises a lofty and precipitous hill, impossible to climb, which runs up into the chain of Oeta, while to the east the road is shut in by the sea and by marshes. In this place are the warm springs which the natives call the Cauldrons, and above them stands an altar sacred to Heracles…’ Pithy, informative, entertaining—the real McCoy.”
Guardian (London)
In The Persian War, taken from The Histories, the first history prose in European civilization, Herodotus tells the heroic tale of the Greeks’ resistance to the vast invading force assembled by Xerxes, king of Persia.
Herodotus’ epic story contains not only the great battles—Marathon, Thermopylae, and Salamis—but also penetrating human insight and a powerful sense of destiny.
Praise