Response to Herodotus and the Greco-Persian Wars by Phiroze Vasunia
In Herodotus and the Greco-Persian Wars, Vasunia looks into “The Histories” by Herodotus and attempts to extrapolate Herodotus’s view on the cause of the Greco-Persian wars. He argues that Herodotus does not give a definitive cause to explain the conflict between the Greeks and the Persians, instead, he draws on earlier historical events to reveal a more complicated entanglement between the Greeks and the Persians.
Vasunia begins his essay by claiming that Herodotus does not give a cause of the war, which is similar to Homer, who describes the cause of the Trojan War with ambiguity. In “The Histories,” war is one of the most important themes, which occurs throughout all lands and generations. In fact, the book starts with the story of Croesus, who undertook a campaign against the Persians. Croesus’s campaign resulted in his own defeat, and being Cyrus’s advisor, he suggested that only fools would choose war over peace. And yet, said Vasunia, all of the Persian kings made war their prime objective, disregarding Croesus’s advice. Cyrus campaigned against some “uncivilized” peoples, Cambyses campaigned against the Egyptians, while Darius and Xerxes invaded Greece. Herodotus often used an advisor figure who tried to persuade the rulers to not wage wars, but this person always failed, resulting in wars. The Greeks led by Pausanias, who defeated Mardonios in the battle of Plataea during Xerxes’s invasion, were amazed by the discrepancy between the Persians’s luxurious tent and their own meager food. Although proud of themselves, the Greeks were puzzled by why the rich Persians would invade the poor Greeks. Vasunia reasons that, since the Persians invaded almost everybody around them, rich and poor, cultured and uncultured, the will to expand and dominate can account for the reason for these invasions. The Persians’s expansion was criticized by many, such as Tomyris, who criticized Cyrus for not respecting her independence and preferring blood over peace, and the king of the Ethiopians, who said that Cambyses was a bad person because he invaded others. Herodotus probably used these examples to explain the Persian tendency to expand, thus making the Persian invasion of the Greeks reasonable.
Herodotus uses myths and stories to explain the Persian invasion of Greece. Vasunia states that Herodotus uses the myths of abducted women to explain the complicated history behind the conflict between the Greeks and the Persians. In class, we discussed that Herodotus is a storyteller who attempts to explain history by telling stories. The stories may not be true, as the story of Io is more myth than truth. Herodotus includes it in his narrative anyway because he believes that this story can reflect many ideological and historical themes that can influence later events.
In the story of Pausanias comparing simple Greek food with the luxurious food of the Persian general Mardonios, Herodotus, with his storytelling skills, praises the Greeks’s virtues and denounces the Persians’s vices without making direct comments, just as he does in the story of Croesus’s downfall. In the former story, the Spartan king Pausanias defeated the Persians and found Mardonios’s tent, which was filled with luxurious utensils and decorations. He had the cook of the Persian general make a meal and had his men prepare a Greek meal. The Greek meal seemed meager in front of the voluptuous Persian meal but Pausanias was proud that the Greeks lived a frugal life and defeated the effeminate Persians. In the story, Herodotus does not comment, neither praising nor criticizing any side, but his point is made through the dramatic and detailed account of the event. In Croesus’s story, Herodotus also does not criticize Croesus for believing that he was the luckiest man on earth. Instead, he narrates the death of Croesus’s son and the inability to revoke fate once it is decided. Through this subtle narration, Herodotus suggests to his readers that certain actions are virtues while others are wrong because they bring destruction.
Bibliography
Vasunia, Phiroze. Herodotus and the Greco-Persian Wars, (The Modern Language Association of America, 2009).
