The Portable Greek Historians

Essential passages from the works of four "fathers of history"—Herodotus's History, Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War, Xenophon's Anabasis, and Polybius's Histories.Introduction
A Brief Reading List
Map

HERODOTUS

From Book I
Lydia

From Book II
The Antiquity of Egypt
The Nile Flood
Manners and Customs
Origins of the Greek Gods
The Truth about the Trojan War
The Building of the Pyramids

From Book VII
The Persian War after Marathon

From Book VIII
The Persian War after Marathon (Continued)

THUCYDIDES

From Book I
The Beginnings

From Book II
The Funeral Oration of Pericles
The Plague in Athens

From Book III
The Mitylenian Debate
Sedition in Corcyra

From Book VI
The War in Sicily

From Book VII
The Sicilian Disaster

XENOPHON: The Anabasis

From Book I
From Book II
From Book III
From Book IV

POLYBIUS

From Book I
Introduction

From Book II
Aratus of Sicyon and the Achaean League

From Book VI
The Roman Constitution

M. I. Finley was a professor of ancient history and master of Darwin College, Cambridge. He died in 1986.