The Persian Wars by Livio Stechhini
August 18th 2007 06:57
In every discipline, one can find bright minds impossible to determine whether they are important intellectuals or sensationalist quacks. Their opinion goes against the consensus but that martyrdom is a feature they share with truly great minds. The martyrdom not enough in itself to redeem them in the eyes of the world. Figures like Marja Gimbutas and Immanuel Velikhovsky come to mind.
Livio Catullo Stecchini falls into the same category. He is not as famous or as controversial as the other two. Nor he is an equal fabulist. In fact, his work is very reasonable. In fact, if he had bothered to temper his arguments with some evidence instead of flatly stating them, he would have been recognised as a great contributor to classical studies.
Stecchini worked in a little known field called metrology. He tried to re-create the units of measurement used in the ancient world. Branching out from his specialty, he waged a war on academic shibboleths concerning the ancient world. One of his pet projects was Herodotus.
Herodotus, like Homer and Aristotle, is one of those pillars of classical thought which were hawed in the middle by an excess of analysis for over two centuries, until their hold on the Western culture has weakened considerably. I do not believe this is coincidental. After all, Plato told pretty stories too but he was never given this water-boarding treatment.
The Persian Wars is a passionate attempt to prove that what Herodotus had to say about history was true. The first chapter Herodotus and his critics is a birds-eye view of the bitter and relentless campaign waged by the academia against Herodotus. Commenting on their opinion of the Father of History, Stecchine writes, "This reveals the basic assumption that the mental capacity of man has undergone a uniform process of growth, so that, although Herodotos' was low, his predecessors were one step closer to the primates."
From then on, he starts building the case that Herodotus in fact, had ample geographic knowledge and enough historical accuracy. He not only reconstructs how events described in Herodotus could have happened but also lays bare the world view behind the supposed errors of Herodotus. What are seemingly errors to us, could not be because our context is quite different from that of a traveller in fourth century BC. Stecchini persuasively tries to imagine that anachronistic context which is nevertheless important to understand ancient world.
There are some touchs of fabulism here and there but mostly, his account holds up well. It's main purpose is to explain eccentricities in Herodotus's work and argue that just because of them, the truth of the histories cannot be wished away. This, it does very well.
In spite of being hopelessly technical( my brain shuts down whenever figures are mentioned), the book reads very well. Some parts, mainly his reconstruction of the Scythian campaign, are absolutely rivetting.
This book is available online. There are other works of his as well, including a kooky explanation of the Deluge but The Persian Wars is sensible. One need not grit one's teeth while reading it.
Livio Catullo Stecchini falls into the same category. He is not as famous or as controversial as the other two. Nor he is an equal fabulist. In fact, his work is very reasonable. In fact, if he had bothered to temper his arguments with some evidence instead of flatly stating them, he would have been recognised as a great contributor to classical studies.
Stecchini worked in a little known field called metrology. He tried to re-create the units of measurement used in the ancient world. Branching out from his specialty, he waged a war on academic shibboleths concerning the ancient world. One of his pet projects was Herodotus.
Herodotus, like Homer and Aristotle, is one of those pillars of classical thought which were hawed in the middle by an excess of analysis for over two centuries, until their hold on the Western culture has weakened considerably. I do not believe this is coincidental. After all, Plato told pretty stories too but he was never given this water-boarding treatment.
The Persian Wars is a passionate attempt to prove that what Herodotus had to say about history was true. The first chapter Herodotus and his critics is a birds-eye view of the bitter and relentless campaign waged by the academia against Herodotus. Commenting on their opinion of the Father of History, Stecchine writes, "This reveals the basic assumption that the mental capacity of man has undergone a uniform process of growth, so that, although Herodotos' was low, his predecessors were one step closer to the primates."
From then on, he starts building the case that Herodotus in fact, had ample geographic knowledge and enough historical accuracy. He not only reconstructs how events described in Herodotus could have happened but also lays bare the world view behind the supposed errors of Herodotus. What are seemingly errors to us, could not be because our context is quite different from that of a traveller in fourth century BC. Stecchini persuasively tries to imagine that anachronistic context which is nevertheless important to understand ancient world.
There are some touchs of fabulism here and there but mostly, his account holds up well. It's main purpose is to explain eccentricities in Herodotus's work and argue that just because of them, the truth of the histories cannot be wished away. This, it does very well.
In spite of being hopelessly technical( my brain shuts down whenever figures are mentioned), the book reads very well. Some parts, mainly his reconstruction of the Scythian campaign, are absolutely rivetting.
This book is available online. There are other works of his as well, including a kooky explanation of the Deluge but The Persian Wars is sensible. One need not grit one's teeth while reading it.
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