The Essential Herodotus

Erscheinungsjahr 2016
ISBN: 978-0-19-989795-7
Verlag: OUP USA

Buch, Englisch, 288 Seiten, Format (B × H): 154 mm x 233 mm, Gewicht: 425 g

The Essential Herodotus breathes new life into the writings of the West's first historian, interleaving succinct commentary and notes with balanced selections of Herodotus's work. William A. Johnson's clear and lively translations lead the reader through complex materials, making the text accessible in all its richness. The Essential Herodotus is the first of its kind, offering Herodotus's well-known writings on politics and war alongside his research on folk tradition, foreign cultures, and natural wonders. For first-time Herodotus readers and historians alike, William A. Johnson's The Essential Herodotus reminds a 21st-century audience why these texts have stood the test of time.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Johnson, William

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Alte Geschichte & Archäologie Geschichte der klassischen Antike

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Preface

- About the Translator

- Introduction

- Maps

- Central Persons in Herodotus

- Timelines

- THE RESEARCHES OF HERODOTUS OF HALICARNASSUS

- BOOK 1

- Prologue

- Proem: The Opening Sentence

- The Snatchings of Women

- Croesus and Tales of Lydia

- Croesus

- Gyges and the Wife of Candaules

- Early Kings of Lydia: Ardys, Sadyattes, Alyattes and the War against Miletus

- Periander at Corinth: Arion and the dolphin

- Croesus and Solon

- Atys and Adrastus

- Croesus tests the oracles

- Croesus seeks an ally

- Background: Athens

- Background: Sparta

- Croesus attacks Cyrus

- Cyrus counterattacks: The siege of Sardis

- Croesus on the pyre

- Cyrus and Croesus

- The Marvels and Customs of Lydia

- Tales of Cyrus and the Rise of the Persians

- Cyrus the Great

- Background: Deioces, and the rise of the Medes

- The Birth and Upbringing of Cyrus

- The Punishment of Harpagus

- How Cyrus became King

- Cyrus's Last Campaign

- The Land of the Massagetae

- Cyrus attacks the Massagetae

- The Marvels and Customs of the Massagetae

- BOOK 2

- Cambyses and Tales of Egypt

- Cambyses

- Psammetichus and the Antiquity of Egypt

- Physical Geography of Egypt

- The Nile River

- The Marvels and Customs of Egypt

- --- Egyptian Customs and Manners

- --- The Sacred Animals of Egypt

- --- The People of Egypt

- The Kings of Egypt

- --- King Proteus and the story of Helen of Troy

- --- Rhampsinitus and the Thief

- --- Cheops, Chephren, and the Building of the Pyramids

- BOOK 3

- Cambyses invades Egypt

- The causes for the invasion

- Preparations for the invasion

- The attack on Egypt

- Cambyses and the Apis bull

- The Madness of Cambyses

- Crisis and Constitutional Debate

- A False Smerdis declares himself King and Cambyses dies

- --- The Magi Revolt

- --- Death of Cambyses

- --- The False Smerdis is Found Out

- The Seven overthrow the Magi

- The Constitutional Debate

- BOOK 4

- Darius invades Scythia

- Why Darius attacked Scythia

- Origins of the Scythians

- The Marvels and Customs of Scythia

- --- Warfare

- --- Oaths

- --- Burial and Purification

- --- "Custom is King": the Stories of Anacharsis and Scyles

- Darius prepares to invade

- Darius crosses the Ister

- Physical geography of Scythia and its Neighbors

- Excursus: Sauromatae and the Amazons

- The Neighboring States take Counsel

- The Scythians lead and the Persians follow

- Darius challenges the Scythians to fight

- Darius retreats and the Scythians give chase

- The Ionians at the Bridge and Darius's Arrival

- BOOKS 5 AND 6

- The Ionian Revolt

- Aristagoras visits Sparta

- Athens and The Burning of Sardis

- Histiaeus hoodwinks Darius

- The Persians move to re-establish control even as the revolt spreads

- Histiaeus joins the revolt

- Sea-Battle at Lade and the Fall of Miletus

- The Fate of Histiaeus

- The final subjugation of Ionia

- BOOK 6

- The First Invasion of Greece: Mardonius and Marathon

- The invasion of Europe: Mardonius's misadventure

- Subjugation of the Cyclades

- Subjugation of Eretria

- The battle of Marathon

- --- Athens asks Sparta for help

- --- Hippias has a dream vision

- --- The Planaeans arrive to help

- --- Miltiades urges the Athenians to stay and fight

- --- The battle is joined

- --- Datis returns to Susa

- --- The Spartans arrive

- BOOK 7

- Xerxes invades Greece

- Darius decides upon a full-scale invasion

- --- A quarrel over Darius's succession

- --- Xerxes becomes the Persian King

- Council of the Persians

- Xerxes and the Dream

- Xerxes prepares to invade

- Bridging the Hellespont

- Xerxes marches into Europe

- Xerxes counts and reviews the host

- Xerxes and Demaratus

- Artemisium and Thermopylae

- Council at the Isthmus

- Artemisium

- --- The advance guard

- --- The enormity of the Persian forces

- --- The storm

- --- Further Persian losses

- Thermopylae

- --- The Greek forces

- --- Xerxes and Demaratus

- --- The Persians attack

- --- Ephialtes and the path over the mountain

- --- Some Greeks decide to depart

- --- Leonidas and his 300 make a stand

- --- Those who survived

- Xerxes and Demaratus

- BOOK 8

- Salamis

- The Greeks evacuate Athens

- The Greek fleet

- The Persians occupy Attica and burn Athens

- The Greeks deliberate. Themistocles tries to persuade Eurybiades

- Signs from the gods

- The Persians deliberate. Artemisia tries to persuade Xerxes

- The Greek resolve wavers. Themistocles' message to Xerxes

- The battle of Salamis

- --- The battle from the Persian perspective

- --- The battle from the Greek perspective

- Xerxes decides to return to Susa

- BOOK 9

- Coda

- Bibliography

- Note on the Selections

- Note on the Text

- Acknowledgments

- Photo Credits

- Pronouncing Glossary/Index

Über Autor(innen)

WILLIAM A. JOHNSON, Professor of Classical Studies at Duke University, works broadly in the cultural history of Greece and Rome. He has lectured and published on Herodotus, Hesiod, Plato, Cicero, Pliny (both Elder and Younger), Gellius, Lucian and on a variety of topics relating to books and readers, both ancient and modern. Recent work has focused on establishing deep contextualization for specific ancient reading communities, with particular attention to the relationship between literary texts and social structure. His books include Readers and Reading Culture in the High Empire, a Study of Elite Reading Communities (Oxford, 2010); Ancient Literacies (with Holt Parker; Oxford, 2009), Bookrolls and Scribes in Oxyrhynchus (Toronto, 2004).