Word: herodotus
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...waste to an oasis temple in the Sahara because its oracle had spoken ill of his plans for world domination. The punitive expedition proved to be one of antiquity's most dramatic episodes of imperial overreach. One morning, while the army was having breakfast, writes the ancient historian Herodotus in The Histories, it was set upon by "a violent southern wind, bringing with it piles of sand, which buried them." The Greek continues, "Thus it was that they utterly disappeared...
...centuries, this little anecdote - like many others in Herodotus's famous text - seemed to be a myth. The Histories is lined with rumors and fantastical hearsay of ants that dig for gold, rings that make their bearers invisible and winged serpents that patrol remote mountain passes. But recent excavations in western Egypt by a team of Italian archaeologists may have unearthed traces of this long-lost army, entombed in the desert for some 2,500 years. (See TIME's photo-essay "Tutankhamun: The Boy King...
...Persian warriors disappeared in the desert, Cambyses didn't fare much better. At the time, he was marching on a kingdom in Ethiopia, but provisions ran out beneath a scorching sun and his troops were forced to pick lots having divided into groups of 10. According to Herodotus, the unfortunate 1 of each 10 was killed and eaten by the other ravenous troops. Cambyses eventually withdrew, chastened by Egypt and its desert...
...ancient as Herodotus' Histories, the waters of the Aras River today trace the Turkish-Armenian border, a messy, 20th century creation of broken bridges and shuttered rail tracks. In the shadow of snow-topped Mount Ararat, the river divides the villages of Halikisla, on the Turkish side, and Bagaran, on the Armenian. Once united, the villages are now separated by a stretch of water little wider than a double bed. Residents never meet, except to cast for trout under the watchful gaze of military guards, or to return an errant...
Smyth is a gorgeous place to study--surrounded by classical literary criticism, small statues, and the portraits of old white men. Okay, the last are sort of intimidating. Graduate students whip out their dusted hardcovers with the Greek original--and only the Greek original--of Homer, Herodotus, and Plato. The Loeb editions--with Greek on one side and English on the other--are too childish for them. Don't plan on looking at Facebook photos in this library...