By Herodotus - On the War for Greek Freedom: Selections from the 'histories'

by James Romm

Designed for students with little or no background in ancient Greek language, history, and culture, this new abridgment presents those selections that comprise Herodotus' historical narrative. These are meticulously annotated, and supplemented with a chronology of the Archaic Age, Historical Epilogue, glossary of main characters and places, index of proper names, and maps.

Genres: History, School, Classics, Nonfiction, World History

Paperback

First published March 15, 2003

Reviews

[Dale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Published in 2003.

Originally published about 440 B.C.

Herodotus, if you don't know, is widely considered to be the West's first historian. He investigated and wrote about the rise of the Persian Empire and the Greco-Persian wars that came as a result of a struggle over Hellenic city-states on the Mediterranean coast of modern-day Turkey. Persia took them over and Athens inspired them to rebel, only to be re-conquered. After that Persia led three separate invasions of modern-day Greece by land and by sea, taking Athens twice but eventually being defeated all three times.

There are many familiar stories in this book, including the Battle of Marathon (the inspiration of our modern marathon run because a soldier ran the 26.2 miles from the battle to Athens to tell the results of the battle and then died) and the Battle of Thermopylae where the 300 Spartans held off a massive Persian army.

Herodotus also attempts ethnographic studies of several cultures in from Egypt all of the way to the Black Sea. Some are pretty accurate from what we know nowadays, some are clearly quite ridiculous.

The ...

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[Gwen :) · Rating 4 out of 5]

✰✰✰✰ / 5

Oh Herodotus, what a guy.

This was a very solid translation and collection, providing helpful commentary and cutting out places where Herodotus drones on. The content itself is pretty dry to be honest, but there’s enough there to get in the weeds if you’re interested.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's sometimes difficult to rate school readings, especially since this was so condensed. But in my opinion, it accomplished what it set out to do, and I enjoyed studying it so yeah.

[Mela Lozano · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great for learning. It is also a great read if you are craving something historical.

[Simona · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautiful if not very accurate - the four stars are for its not being complete (I am referring to the edition "On the War for Greek Freedom: Selections from the Histories, Paperback, 201 pages, Published 2003 by Hackett Publishing Company,
ISBN: 087220667X).

[Josh Howell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aside from Herodotus's quite obvious anti-Theban bias throughout the text, it is a rather enjoyable and enlightening read for those interested in Greek history or simply looking for a short, but effective read into late antiquity.