Herodotus frequently makes mention of the religions of the peoples he is describing, but, as far as I can remember, he never makes mention of their language.
Now there’s no doubt that the Greeks, Egyptians, Persians, Scythians et al. spoke different languages (unrelated languages at that), and I’m sure that Herodotus’ audience would have known that, [...]
I’m not the only person who has come to the conclusion that the reason for the Roman Conquest (of Britain) was to gain control of Cornish tin. It’s notable that, once they had beaten the Cornish in a pitched battle, the Romans didn’t bother to advance further, but made a truce which, of course, involved [...]
H. makes another mention of flying snakes in the context of the Arabians harvesting frankincense (how serendipitously seasonal!). Now, all of the methods he describes by which the Arabians obtain spices (frankincense, myrrh, cassia, cinnamon and ledanon) are a bit wacky, so I rather doubt that H. could have believed them (he makes no comments [...]
My tentative conclusion is that Herodotus’ “winged serpents” are cobras. He never actually says they can fly (the word is like ours - it can just mean to move fast), and he describes their wings as more like a bat than anything else.
They can’t have been locusts. He describes seeing their bones and backbones, and [...]
When Herodotus is describing the crocodile, he mentions that it doesn’t eat in the four winter months. Now I thought, since I’ve come accross this fact more than once, that this is nowadays common knowledge, but apparently not. I wonder if it’s ever been used as an example of H’s wobbly zoology.
In fact, I think [...]
We were up at Hadrian’s wall last week. It was cold, and it rained half the time, but I reckon that’s the authentic legionary-on-the-wall experience.
The wall itself is impressive, snaking over the hills, and the forts are interesting, but I would most recommend a visit to Vindalanda.
At Vindalanda, many perishable items have been preserved, buried [...]
…were much greater than our own.
I’ve made a few posts on the principle that anything is better than nothing, but I think this is worth reading.
Sarah gave me a copy of Herodotus for my birthday. I opened it, at random, in the middle, and read that the Egyptians circumnavigated Africa.
Well, strictly speaking, it was the [...]