Herodotus and the Topography of Xerxes’ Invasion: Place and Memory in Greece and Anatolia

389 Pages·2018·3.92 MB·English

by  Jan Zacharias Rookhuijzen

Jan Zacharias van Rookhuijzen
Herodotus and the Topography of Xerxes’ Invasion

Jan Zacharias van Rookhuijzen
Herodotus and
the Topography
of Xerxes’ Invasion
This book was based on the dissertation titled “Where Xerxes’ Throne Once Stood: Gazing with
Herodotus at the Persian Invasion in the Landscapes of Greece and Anatolia”, defended on 1 F ebruary
2018 at Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands. The project’s supervisors were Prof. dr.
M.J.G.M. De Pourcq, Prof. dr. A.P.M.H. Lardinois and Prof. dr. E.M. Moormann.
ISBN 978-3-11-061020-8
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-061253-0
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-061151-9
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Rookhuijzen, Jan Zacharias van, 1988- author.
Title: Herodotus and the topography of Xerxes' invasion : place and memory in
Greece and Anatolia / Jan Zacharias van Rookhuijzen.
Other titles: Where Xerxes throne once stood
Description: Berlin ; Boston : De Gruyter, [2018] | Revision of author's
thesis (doctoral)--Radboud University, 2018, titled Where Xerxes throne
once stood: gazing with Herodotus at the Persian invasion in the
landscapes of Greece and Anatolia. | Includes bibliographical references
and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018030915 (print) | LCCN 2018043255 (ebook) | ISBN
9783110612530 (electronic Portable Document Format (pdf) | ISBN
9783110610208 | ISBN 9783110610208print : paper) | ISBN
9783110612530e-book pdf) | ISBN 9783110611519e-book epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Greece--History--Persian Wars, 500-449 B.C. | Herodotus.
History.
Classification: LCC DF225 (ebook) | LCC DF225 .R67 2018 (print) | DDC
938/.03--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018030915
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Typesetting: Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd.
Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck
www.degruyter.com
For my parents and sisters.

“Circumstances of climate and situation, otherwise trivial, become interesting from that connection
with great men, and great actions, which history and poetry have given them: the life of Miltiades or
Leonidas could never be read with so much pleasure, as on the plains of Marathon or at the Streights
of Thermopylae; the Iliad has new beauties on the banks of the Scamander, and the Odyssey is most
pleasing in the countries where Ulysses travelled and Homer sung.
The particular pleasure, it is true, which an imagination warmed on the spot receives from those
scenes of heroick actions, the traveller can only feel, nor is it to be communicated by description. But
the classical ground not only makes us always relish the poet, or historian more, but sometimes helps
us to understand them better.”
Preface of The Ruins of Palmyra, otherwise Tedmore, in the desart
by Robert Wood (1753), London.

Preface
Travelling to the lands of the ancient world often feels like time travel. Here we can
tread in the footsteps of our textual heroes and observe the same landscapes and
buildings that were part of their world; whether in reality or in our imagination. This
can be an emotional, almost overwhelming experience, with sentiments ranging from
delight and surprise, to frustration and confusion (when reality challenges our expec-
tations). This book is the result of my personal fascination with these experiences.
I found in Herodotus’ Histories the ideal companion to exploring them.
I am grateful to my supervisors Maarten De Pourcq, André Lardinois, and Eric
Moormann for their fantastic input, support, and patience. I owe special thanks
to Josine Blok who read and commented on the entire manuscript before its final
submission.
Apart from my supervisors, the following colleagues at Nijmegen (and many others)
have made this research an enormously enjoyable experience: Lucien van Beek, Sven
Betjes, Luuk de Blois, Bé Breij, Esmée Bruggink, Diederik Burgersdijk, Vanessa Cazzato,
Maarten van Deventer, Chris Dickenson, Roald Dijkstra, Lien Foubert, Lisenka Fox,
Nathalie de Haan, Olivier Hekster, Eveline van Hilten, Rens de Hond, Vincent Hunink,
Raphael Hunsucker, Janneke de Jong, Suzanne van de Liefvoort, Stéphane Martin,
Stephan Mols, Floris Overduin, Marc van der Poel, Aurora Raimondi-Cominesi, René
Reijnen, Willeon Slenders, Daniëlle Slootjes, Lydia Spielberg, Claire Stocks, Christel
Veen, Martje de Vries, Marenne Zandstra.
The following non-exhaustive, alphabetical list consists of names of further persons
who I also owe gratitude for their feedback, conversations and support during my
research: Selim Adalı, Antiopi Argyriou, Mathieu de Bakker, Daniël Bartelds, Koen Blok,
Deborah Boedeker, Gerard Boter, Jan Brouwe, Amber Brüsewitz, Liesbeth Claes, Tamara
Dijkstra, Marc Domingo Gygax, Floris van den Eijnde, David van Eijndhoven, Gunnel
Ekroth, Thomas Figueira, Edith Foster, Michael Flower, Therese Fuhrer, Hans-Joachim
Gehrke, Marc Gehrmann, Fokke Gerritsen, Ulrich Gotter, Vasilis Gravanis, Ulf Hailer,
Rianne Hermans, Kerstin Hofmann, Marietta Horster, Martin Hose, Pieter Houten, Irene
de Jong, Sjoukje Kamphorst, Nino Luraghi, Marian Makins, Richard Martin, Jeremy
McInerney, Daniel Mendelssohn, Anna Michaelidou, Elizabeth Minchin, Astrid Möller,
Onno van Nijf, Arjan Nijk, Robert Parker, Giacomo Pedini, Jeremiah Pelgrom, Gloria Pin-
ney-Ferrari, Timothy Power, Giorgia Proietti, Nicholas Purcell, Winfred van de Put, Kurt
Raaflaub, Reinder Reinders, Bettina Reitz-Joosse, Albert Rijksbaron, Ineke Sluiter, Peter
Stork, Siward Tacoma, Muriël van Teeseling, Nino Vallen, Miguel-John Versluys, Daan
Viergever, Jan Vonk, Willemijn Waal, Christian Wendt, Gert Jan van Wijngaarden, Clem
Wood, Greg Woolf.
I was very happy to find Steven Clark, Claire Stocks and Clem Wood willing to
help with the English.
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110612530-201
X   Preface
Finally, I am grateful to the editorial team at De Gruyter for their support, and to
Caroline van Toor for her help in making the index.
This research has benefited from grants and/or institutional support from:
the Institute for Historical, Literary and Cultural Studies, Radboud University (the
PhD position); OIKOS, National Research School in Classical Studies (travel grant
2017); the Netherlands Institute in Athens; Netherlands Institute in Istanbul, fellow-
ship (October–November 2013); Freie Universität, Berlin (fellowship at the TOPOI
Exzellenz kluster, May 2015); Princeton University, Visiting Scholar Research Collab-
orator (September–December 2016); Stichting Philologisch Studiefonds, travel grant
(June 2017).
Names of ancient authors, gods, mythological figures, famous historical persons, well-
known regions, cities, rivers mountains have sometimes been latinised or anglicised.
Other names are original (or have been transliterated). Names of ancient works are
latinised, with the exception of Herodotus’ Histories and Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey.
Names of medieval and later date are original (or transliterated) or anglicised. Modern
Greek names have been transliterated according to pronunciation, except where a dif-
ferent rendering is more familiar. Turkish names follow current spelling.
References to ancient authors follow the editions as given in the list of primary
sources (§5.1). References to works which are the only work of an author are not
mentioned. References to Herodotus’ Histories are only indicated by book and par-
agraph numbers (for example: 7.192), except where this practise could give rise to
confusion. Internal references are preceded by the sign §. First names of modern
authors have been given in the bibliography where available.
Some standard works (for example LSJ and IG) have been abbreviated; full refer-
ences are given in the bibliography. For the sake of clarity, names of ancient authors,
works and journals have not been abbreviated.