Customer Reviews

A GCSE Classical Civilisation textbook - By: T. Johnson, 01 Jul 2008
This is a textbook for those sitting the GCSE Classical Civilisation exam. It is still utilised by the OCR Board for one of their ten literature topics. However, Cambridge University Press have never seen fit to reprint it since 1983, & it is now only available secondhand.

It covers the Persian War as describedin Books 5-9 of Herodotus' Histories. But, be warned, to simplify the subject for schoolchildren, only the key sections are translated, & even these may be subject to abridgment. Furthermore, the translation is a little dry, certainly nowhere near as entertaining as that by Robin Waterfield, who admirably brings out Herodotus' urbane wit (ISBN 0192824252).

One further caveat. Despite what Amazon might display on its website, this book (tr. William Shepherd, Cambridge University Press, 1983, 136 pages, ISBN 0521281946) is NOT to be confused with one of an almost identical title, "The Persian Wars", a translation of the whole of Herodotus' Histories by George Rawlinson.