Herodotus + Vandiver = 2 Well-Spent Credits

Late in his life, Churchill was asked which year of that eventful life he would most like to relive. He responded unhesitatingly: 1940. Existential conflicts, where all the chips are on the table and the life or death of a culture hangs in the balance, have that kind of totemic power. It’s why we never tire of reliving that year in books and films. And it’s one of the reasons—perhaps the main reason—why Herodotus’ account of the years 490 and 480-479 BC never seem to gather as much dust as other ancient books.



Granted, the two failed Persian invasions of Greece take up a mere fraction of the Histories (and the final fraction at that.) But everything that goes before is an essential prelude. After all, for Herodotus, the Persian Wars are just the most recent chapter in a conflict that predates even the Trojan War. The setting of the drama is the eastern Mediterranean and western Asia; Herodotus paints a vivid picture of the customs and commerce, conflicts and conquests that shaped that vast region up until the final Greco-Persian showdown. It’s a tremendously entertaining story in and of itself.



Admittedly, there are moments—frequent with me—when you ask questions like, “Were the Persians really named after Perseus?” or “Why doesn’t Herodotus accept the theory that melting snow makes the Nile flood?” Here’s where I can’t recommend Professor Elizabeth Vandiver’s lectures on the Histories too highly. Listening to both recordings in tandem, the lectures become your footnotes (and Cliff’s Notes), giving everything from illuminating details to the broader intellectual milieu in which Herodotus worked and the shape of the book he left us. Plus, she’s a great teacher.



David Timson turns in his usual spectacular performance here, rendering even the more tedious passages—such as the Homeric catalogue of Persian forces—listenable. For over 27 hours, he knows precisely where to place every emphasis and inuendo.

