Ron Peters's Reviews > Histories

“It is better by noble boldness to run the risk of being subject to half the evils we anticipate than to remain in cowardly listlessness for fear of what might happen.” Herodotus

I like to read classics in translation (e.g., Greco-Roman classics, Cervantes, Rabelais, Montaigne), so it bugs me that audiobook companies typically don’t tell you which translation you have bought. This Naxos recording gives you no clue which translation it used, but it sounds like a 19th-century version. David Timson is a good reader.

I’ve read the Penguin Aubrey de Selincourt translation, which is quite good, and the Landmark Herodotus: The Histories edition, which has excellent annotations, maps, and photographic illustrations.

I rate this version third out of the three, though it is not terrible. It’s hard to ruin set pieces like the battle of the 300 Spartans against the Persians at Thermopylae or the Greek victories at Salamis and Plataea. Most importantly, this version does not wreck the best thing about Herodotus – the authorial voice itself. Whenever I read him, I think, “This is a guy I’d like to sit and have a chat with over a glass of wine.”

Many people complain that he’s an unreliable historian and that his storytelling meanders around. There is a great deal of entertaining nonsense in Herodotus. But these are the things I like best about him – he’s a terrific anecdotalist, especially his travelogues and amateur anthropology. I enjoy soaking him in.