The Essential Herodotus

ISBN-13: 9780199897957 / Angielski / Miękka / 2016 / 288 str.

Herodotus; Jr. William A. Johnson

Opis

Breathing new life into the writings of the West's first historian, The Essential Herodotus combines balanced selections of his work with succinct commentary and notes. The first collection of its kind, this volume presents Herodotus's well-known writings on politics and war alongside his research on folk traditions, foreign cultures, and natural wonders. William A. Johnson's clear and lively translations make the original texts accessible in all their richness. Ideal for novices and historians alike, The Essential Herodotus reminds a 21st-century audience why these texts have stood the test of time.

Recenzje

Johnson has chosen his selections from the Histories very well; readers will gain from these selections an excellent impression of the content and nature of Herodotus' work as a whole. The comments that Johnson offers on Herodotean motifs, themes, and recurring patterns, moreover, are outstanding-some of the best such comments I have ever read in a translation of the Histories. Armed with a knowledge of such patterns, readers should be well-quipped to appreciate Herodotus' achievement as an historian, thinker, and literary artist." - David Branscome, Florida State University

O autorze

WILLIAM A. JOHNSON, Professor of Classical Studies at Duke University, works broadly in the cultural history of Greece and Rome. He has lectured and published on Herodotus, Hesiod, Plato, Cicero, Pliny (both Elder and Younger), Gellius, Lucian and on a variety of topics relating to books and readers, both ancient and modern. Recent work has focused on establishing deep contextualization for specific ancient reading communities, with particular attention to the relationship between literary texts and social structure. His books include Readers and Reading Culture in the High Empire, a Study of Elite Reading Communities (Oxford, 2010); Ancient Literacies (with Holt Parker; Oxford, 2009), Bookrolls and Scribes in Oxyrhynchus (Toronto, 2004).