Customer Reviews

The Portable Greek Historians: The Essence of Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybius (Viking Portable Library)

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A collection of excerpts from Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon and Polybius. The selection takes us from the history of the Pelopenessian war, through the attempted Athenian conquest of Sicily, the Persian civil wars and up to the Roman conquest. The narration and commentary by M.I. Finley is probably a bit too brief for the reader not familiar with the Greeks, and yest is probably not necessary for the true scholar. The translations are easy to digest and written in very approachable English. All in all, the book is 500+ pages of Greek history by four great writers, but the set up and the commentary are too sparse to make it a great read for the non-scholar.

Dont be confused by the relatively low ranking, this book is good. The only trouble is that it only contains fragments of the greatest historians ever. Though this is what the editor set out to do, you will feel cheated by not having the whole story to read. If all you want is a glimpse at what made the ancient historians so special, this is the book for you. However, chances are that you will want the complete story as well, something this collection cant offer.