Herodotus Histories Book V

<p>History begins with Herodotus (485–425 b.c.e.). Born in Halikarnassos a gateway between the Greek and Persian worlds Herodotus in his <em>Histories</em> narrates the great historical struggle between the Persian Empire and the Greek-speaking city-states at the dawn of the classical era. Herodotus does not merely list events or tell tales; his history inquires into the causes of events and casts its net wide to include ethnography and legend as well as political and military history.<br /><br />Book V of the <em>Histories</em> focuses on the Persians and their expansion into Thrakia and Makedonia as well as their conflict with the Greeks of Ionia. Beginning in the timeless legends of prehistory Herodotus discusses the customs of the Thrakians offers insight into Sparta’s mindset and narrates the struggle to restore democracy at Athens after the reign of the tyrant Peisistratos.<br /><br />The narrative of Book V sprawls over Asia Africa and Europe naming more than 350 people and places. The reader will find in Herodotus a literate keenly observant wide-ranging guide to a time when Persia ruled 40 percent of the world's population and was confronted by an uneasy and fragile alliance of Greek city-states.<br /><br />In his introduction to the text and commentary Philip S. Peek outlines a process by which students of ancient Greek can develop translation and reading skills. For students’ convenience Peek pairs the Greek text with the commentary and includes in the book’s appendices a case and function chart an explanation of infinitives a summary of the subjunctive and optative moods a list of parsing terms and a list of the five hundred most commonly occurring Greek words. A comprehensive glossary rounds out the volume. As further aids to students running vocabulary for each text section and a generalized list of the principal parts of verbs can be downloaded from oupress.com.<br /> </p>