When I decided to give myself a classical education, one of the first works I decided to read is The Histories, by Herodotus. Where to begin when talking about Herodotus? To start, Herodotus invents the notion of writing down accounts of events and so this is the first book of history. His Histories are just full of interesting tales and stories from all around the Mediterranean world. Hearing someone’s voice describing their world some 2,400+ years later is absolutely fascinating for me.
One of the reasons to read Herodotus if you’re not sure what you would find it interesting, is that contained in his Histories is the original text of the story of Leonidas and his 300 Spartans, and their fight against the Persians.
Tom Holland, who produced an updated translation of Herodotus fairly recently, gives a great talk about his love of Herodotus in this following video:
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