Author Description

Presenting Histories by Herodotus and History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides with illustrations by Nicholas Tamblyn and Katherine Eglund. These classics are part of The Great Books Series by Golding Books. The classic translation of Histories by Herodotus is by George Rawlinson, and of History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides by Richard Crawley. Two preeminent texts of ancient history (chiefly Greek history and classical literature in the 5th century BC), the classic works of Herodotus and Thucydides have stood the test of time as landmark history classics, and as indispensable references for both students of the history of ancient Greece (along with its relationship to the wider world) and of the most central texts of ancient literature. Herodotus was born in Halicarnassus (then of the Persian Empire) in the fifth century BC, but the precise date is uncertain. A wide traveler that scholars believe lived for a time in Athens, his work Histories, describing the wars between Greece and Persia, is considered the founding work of history in Western literature. From his own scant references to himself, and as nothing in the work can be dated past 430 BC with certainty, it is supposed that Herodotus died not long afterwards, possibly at the age of sixty. Thucydides was born in Halimous (modern Alimos) in South Athens in 460 BC. A general and an historian, little else is known about his life--in History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides states that he fought in the war, contracted the plague, and was subsequently exiled by the democracy. The work is regarded as one of the earliest scholarly works of history. Thucydides died in about 400 BC.