Nicholas (nwhyte) wrote,
Nicholas
nwhyte

August Books 6) The Portable Greek Historians, ed. M.I. Finley

A Penguin collection of extracts from Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon and Polybius, showing the start and early evolution of historical writing. As I am less familiar than I would like with the historical background, a lot of this sailed over my head (I would have liked more footnotes and maps), but I appreciated the raw approach of Herodotus, the critical attitude of all of them to other writers (not that this stopped them making stuff up themselves) and the closing passage from Polybius comparing the Roman constitution with the constitutions of less successful states (he singles out Rome's institutionalisation of religion as a key factor).
Tags: bookblog 2012, xa
Subscribe

  • The Departed

    NB: With Russia's unprovoked murderous assault on Ukraine, I am actively looking at alternative hosts for this journal, preferably those which…

  • Million Dollar Baby (aka Rope Burns), by F.X. Toole

    Second paragraph of third story (which as it happens is "Million Dollar Baby", on which the film was based): The voice of Frankie Dunn…

  • Crash

    Crash won the Oscar for Best Picture of 2005, and two others, Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing, losing in another three. Three is a…

  • Post a new comment

    Error

    default userpic

    Your reply will be screened

    Your IP address will be recorded 

    When you submit the form an invisible reCAPTCHA check will be performed.
    You must follow the Privacy Policy and Google Terms of use.
  • 0 comments