About the Author

HERODOTUS was born around 480 bc in Halicarnassus, on the southwest coast of Asia Minor. Few facts are known about his life but he remains known through his life’s work, The Histories.

TOM HOLLAND is the award-winning author of Rubicon, Persian Fire, and most recently In the Shadow of the Sword. He lives in London.

PAUL CARTLEDGE is the author of Sparta and Lakonia and The Greeks. He is A. G. Leventis Professor of Greek Culture at the University of Cambridge.

Reviews

“Unquestionably the best English translation of Herodotus to have appeared in the past half-century…I am in awe of Tom Holland’s achievement, and have no doubt it will bear rich fruit in bringing Herodotus to public attention”
–Edith Hall, Times Literary Supplement

“Lively, engaging version of the Histories…[an] admirable translation”
–The Economist

"Holland makes Herodotus lively, garrulous [and] bold."
–Wall Street Journal

"An engaging modern translation...A feast for students of ancient history and budding historians of any period."
–Kirkus (starred review)

"Tom Holland’s vivid, vigorous new translation [is] an accomplishment that makes Herodotus sound like a contemporary bending our ear, celebrating great and wondrous deeds of the past to prevent their memory from fading.”
–Wichita Eagle

"Holland’s book is a performance of its own, full of gusto and flair, and in that way it beats its predecessors: this is Herodotus the pubman, taking your elbow to tell you stories about the dastardly yet fascinating tyrants of the Near East and the miraculous fables attending them."
–Quarterly Conversation

"Brisk, modern and idiomatic, gives greater weight to accuracy, with only an occasional loss of fluency...Holland and Cartledge deserve high praise for bringing a bristling new Herodotus to a new generation."
–The Spectator

"[Holland], like Herodotus, is a storyteller par excellence...The maps and glossary index are excellent and the introduction and accompanying historical notes to the translation [are] admirably to the point."
–The New Statesman