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Following the capture of Babylon, Darius led an army against Scythia. For Asia was flourishing; it had both numerous fighting men and ample revenues, and Darius had developed a desire to punish the Scythians for having earlier invaded Media and having conquered those who had tried to oppose them; for in doing this the Scythians […]
Ryszard Kapuściński’s Travels with Herodotus is a marvelous half-memoir of his career and half-reflection on Herodotus’ The Histories. Other than a few articles I’ve read over the years, this is my first extended exposure to Kapuściński. I have definitely shortchanged myself in not reading more of his work before now. Kapuściński was a Polish journalist/correspondent […]
I have already mentioned where the author of this account came from; and now I shall tell you what I heard about him in Proconnesus and Cyzicus. Aristeas, they say, was in lineage the equal or superior of any citizen in his town. One day he entered a fuller’s shop in Proconnesus and dies there, […]
Two presentations on the story of Gyges from The Histories. First is Kristen Scott Thomas in The English Patient (link, in case the video doesn’t display): Next is a fun little parody by Mike using scenes from various Star Wars movies (I can’t find the link anymore…if anyone knows of a site hosting it, please […]
Phaidymie feeling for Smerdis’s Ears Picture source Never hath a painless life Been cast on mortals by the power supreme Of the All-disposer, Cronos’ son. But joy And sorrow visit in perpetual round All mortals, even as circleth still on high The constellation of the Northern sky. What lasteth in the world? Not starry night, […]
The inscription of Darius I, the Great on Mount Behistun Picture sourceFrom Livius.org: In Antiquity, Bagastâna, which means ‘place where the gods dwell’, was the name of a village and a remarkable, isolated rock along the road that connected the capitals of Babylonia and Media, Babylon and Ecbatana (modern Hamadan). Many travellers passed along this […]
I have given a rather lengthy account of the Samians because they achieved the three greatest engineering works of all the Hellenes. First, they dug a tunnel through a 900-foot-high mountain; it is 4,080 feet long and 8 feet high and wide. Another channel, 30 feet deep and 3 feet wide, was dug along the […]
Map of ancient EgyptAfter the Persian king Cyrus dies and before the narrative follows Cambyses’ reign, Herodotus pauses and relays his inquiries and research on Egypt. While still wealthy, Egypt had declined markedly over the previous few centuries. Despite the decline, the wonders and achievements he sees in that land provide material for an entire […]
“Herodotus sometimes writes for children and sometimes for philosophers” – Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Herodotus has generated responses, positive and negative, over the years. Here is the opening of “Herodotus” by Lucian of Samosata (translated by H. W. Fowler and F. G. Fowler): I devoutly wish […]
Candaules, King of Lydia, Shews his Wife by Stealth to Gyges, One of his Ministers, as She Goes to Bed by William Etty 1787-1849 Herodotus of Halicarnassus here presents his research so that human events do not fade with time. May the great and wonderful deeds—some brought forth by the Hellenes, others by the barbarians—not […]