Review by
ALLAN MASSIEHERODOTUS IS KNOWN AS THE "Father of History", also to sceptical detractors as the "Father of Lies". Though there are many tall stories in his Histories, mostly recorded with a straight face, the first descr
iption is fairer and more accurate. He set out to tell the story of the wars between the Greeks and the Persians, but went much further than that, ranging all over the eastern Mediterranean, satisfying his inexhaustible curiosity about the customs and creeds of the various peoples and states.
He is lively, entertaining, agreeably tolerant, and often wise. Justin Marozzi is besotted by him, and has taken him as his companion on a journey around the same part of the world. My only complaint is that he feels the need to denigrate Thucydides, the other great historian of Ancient Greece. It's as if you couldn't praise Macaulay without running down Carlyle, and is quite unnecessary. Herodotus is livelier, more comprehensive, more entertaining; Thucydides more acute in his analysis of politics. The two are complementary, not rivals; and Marozzi should acknowledge this.
His admiration extends to Herodotus's character, about which we know nothing beyond what is found in his Histories. Still, enough is revealed there to justify Marozzi's appreciation of his generosity of spirit and charm. Of course, he was often credulous. His favoured means of acquiring knowledge in foreign countries was to talk to priests. Many were doubtless fearful liars, as perhaps are some the priests and imams to whom Marozzi talks.
The book is as much about the world today as about Herodotus. It would be an exaggeration to suggest that the ancient historian is a peg on which Marozzi, whose last book was a fascinating biography of the Mongol emperor Tamerlane, hangs his own impressions of Greece and the Middle East, for Herodotus is never forgotten even when Marozzi goes to Iraq. "Had Herodotus been working as President Bush's speechwriter or spokesman, quite possibly he would have thrown up his hands in despair at the president's announcement of a crusade. As an observer of the war in Iraq, he would have been deeply saddened by the conflict, disturbed by American and British arrogance and equally horrified by the slaughter of 'infidels' at Muslim hands." Well, perhaps he would.
Certainly Herodotus warns rulers against hubris, the pride that offends the gods and comes before a fall. Saddam himself was guilty – "he had what one psychologist called a 'Nebuchadnezzar Imperial Complex'. Symptoms of this rare historical condition included posing for portraits standing in a copy of Nebuchadnezzar's war chariot and even appearing alongside Nebuchadnezzar in the sky over Baghdad as part of a night-time laser show. If he had read the Jewish Bible, he might have been less eager to identify himself with a king who lost his wits and was reduced to eating grass like a beast of the field."
Marozzi is as fascinated by Egypt as his hero was himself. A professor of mathematics at Cairo University tells him that the Pyramids prove that "ancient Egyptians must have possessed a much greater degree of sophistication in maths than has hitherto been recognised". He is convinced: the Pyramids' "obvious perfection is a shocking challenge to our in-built notions of superiority over the dusty ancients".
His travels and conversations in Greece itself are equally interesting. Modern Greeks are "an intensely independent lot, they have an uneasy relationship with authority and don't like being told what to do. Huffy health ministers tell the people that cigarettes are harmful, quickest way to the grave, must be stopped, but the freedom-loving Greeks don't give a hoot." Quite right too. Most of his conversations are conducted in a haze of tobacco smoke and lubricated by retsina or whisky, and are all the better for it.
One of the most interesting is with a journalist, Nenan Sedak, who lives in Thessaloniki, and who is responsible for a series of history textbooks that aims "to change the teaching of history by rejecting nationalist history, presenting differences and conflicts openly, encouraging children to develop identities beyond the confines of political geography". They seek "to mould responsible citizens with moral values, able to resist any attempt to manipulate them". Much needed – and not only in that part of the world. Herodotus, Marozzi has no doubt, would approve.
This is a delightful book, fit companion to the Father of History himself. Curiously, it follows hard on another of the same sort, Travels with Herodotus by the Polish journalist Ryszard.Kapuscinski. Read them both; you will be the better and wiser for doing so. Read Herodotus too – but don't knock Thucydides.
The full article contains 789 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
