The Histories (Translated by Tom Holland)

Herodotus is a joy to read. In his Enquiries into the heroic struggle of Greece against the mighty Persian Empire, he wanted to preserve the memory of wondrous deeds. And he does it brilliantly. Along the way we discover how to catch a crocodile in Egypt, visit the walls of Babylon, and travel with the fearsome, gender-fluid, Scythian warriors. As the massed Persian armies with their arrogant and manipulative commanders bear down on the divided state of Greece, we are taken to battlefield of Marathon, witness the tenacious heroism of the 300 Spartans, and fight on the sea at the… show more.

No, it isn't boring and dry. Believe me. Herodotus, the ancient Greek writer, geographer, and historian is said to have traveled in Egypt in approximately 450 B.C. In his travels, he compiled extensive notes on his observations and experiences and came to the conclusion that Egypt was highly impressive but also incredibly strange, if not downright weird. Flip to page 319 of this book (my version of it anyway) and you will find Herodotus's examples of the way in which Egyptians do everything in reverse of the rest of the world: ". . . the women buy and sell, the… show more.

The ‘Father of History’ was not just keen to record the events of the war between Persia and the Greeks in the fifth century BC; he was also interested in what we would now call anthropology, and there are marvellous descriptions of the life of distant peoples such as the Scythians and the ancient Egyptians. ‘History’ means ‘enquiry’, and Herodotus was as persistent an enquirer as you are likely to find.

Herodotus (his name means ‘gift of the goddess Hera’, sister-wife of supreme god Zeus) was born in Halicarnassus (modern Bodrum in western Turkey) in about 484 BC. He was born therefore a subject of the mighty Persian Empire. (Based in Iran, founded by Cyrus the Great in about 550 BC, it eventually reached as far east as Afghanistan and the Indus Valley, as far west as the Aegean and Egypt.) But he grew up in the shadow of that Empire’s famous failure - in 480 and 479 - to add mainland Greece to its possessions. And he set himself as… show more.