ABSTRACT
Furthermore, readers of Herodotos will not have failed to observe for themselves, even through the veil of a translation,2 his outstanding qualities as a literary artist. Some of these were set out by Lucian, the late Greek critic, some 1,800 years ago (see Chapter 2). However it will do no harm to list some of the special merits which make Herodotos (to quote the publisher's blurb for a recent book on him) such 'a good read'. One does not have to be a student of history, an archaeologist, ethnologist or any other kind of specialist; his appeal is to the human race.
