Herodotus
of Halicarnassus and Thucydides the Athenian were the two most famous and earliest
(fifth century bce) of the Greek
historians whose work survives; their subject was the wars between the Greek
cities and the Persian Empire and later those between the Greek cities
themselves. Their names are frequently linked and their work compared and
contrasted: Herodotus' history ranged adventurously both in space and time;
Thucydides limited himself to the events of his own day. Herodotus' work is
certainly more fun to read; Thucydides approaches more closely to the modern
conception of 'scientific' history-writing.



This book
seeks to explore the reception of their writings from the Byzantine era until
today, following the ups and downs of their scholarly reputations. Herodotus
has at times been much despised and only recently reassessed and taken more
seriously. Thucydides has been more consistently revered, even if sometimes
thought narrow and boring. Today, he still attracts readers from disciplines
far from the classical world. The essays in this collection range from Sir
Walter Ralegh's History of the World and Isaac Newton's
Chronology to the coming of narratology.



The
contributors to this volume of our 'Afterlife' series are: Andrea Ceccarelli;
Elizabeth Jeffreys; Vasiliki Zali; Ben Earley; Luca Iori; John Richards; Mordechai Feingold; Reinhold
Bichler; Gaston
J. Basile; Neville Morley.