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BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 195
is an abridgement intended primarily for the undergraduate classroom.
I It follows eight other complete translations since the middle of
the nineteenth century: Henry Cary (1849). Canon George Rawlinson
(1858-60). G.c. Macaulay (1890). A.c. Godley (1920). }. Enoch Powell
(1949). Aubrey de Selincourt (1954). David Grene (1989) and Robin Waterfield
(1998). Cary. Rawlinson. Godley. de Selincourt (lightly revised
with notes by John Marincola in 2003). Grene and Waterfield are all in
print. Among these six. Cary's version is still the most consistently accurate.
economical and deft in tracking the Greek syntax. The defunct
Macaulay provides a slightly more exact translation. but he has the bad
habit. like Rawlinson. of imposing archaic vocabulary. biblical diction
and th-pronouns on Herodotus. Cary wisely-and surprisingly for his
age-chose to use plain. unadorned English without the biblicalese that
ruins so much of the dialogue in both Rawlinson and Macaulay. Until
Robert Strassler's forthcoming Landmark Herodotus appears with its
newly commissioned translation. we have two abridged and six complete
translations of wildly varying styles and accuracy from which to
choose for our students. 2
James Romm provides a cursory 13-page general introduction
touching on the scope of the Histories. the Persians. the Greeks. the
author. the Histories in their time and the editorial practice behind the
abridgement. This is followed by a chronological chart of parallel
events in Greece. Egypt and the Near East and five clear maps. which
do not unfortunately include either Marathon or Plataea. If the book
runs into another edition. they ought to be added. The translation itself
"is intended to highlight the main story line of the Histories. though in
doing so it eclipses a great number of other subjects Herodotus addresses
in the text. The same can be said of the excerpts themselves:
They have been chosen so as to give a reduced version of the text's central
thread. with only a passing glance at its many tangents, digressions.
and subplots" (xviii). Annotations to the translation are in the form of
sparse footnotes. Romm adds a brief "Historical Epilogue" that sketches
events from 479 to the rise of Alexander. A six-page glossary of "Main
Characters and Places" and a five-page index of proper names end the
volume.
I Walter Blanco. trans.. Jennifer Tolbert Roberts. ed.. Herodotus: The Histories.
New Translation. Selections. Backgrounds. Commentaries (New York
1992).
2 For those who would like to see just how wildly styles and accuracy vary
among the complete translations. please consult my detailed review "Catching
Xerxes' tears in English: The styles of Herodotean translation," Arion Third
Series 8.l (2000) ll9-l43. or the shorter treatment in "Recent trends in classical
prose translation," Syllecta Classica l3 (2002) 238-243.