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Look To Your Own: Human Limits And The Danger Of Overambition In Herodotus’ Histories, Alex Christopher Brinkman

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

The final clause of the proem to Herodotus’ Histories promises that the work to come will, among other things, set out “the reason for which [the Greeks and the Persians] fought against one another” (δι᾽ ἣν αἰτίην ἐπολέμησαν ἀλλήλοισι), a story which will be told through the gradual expansion of the Persian empire, its encounters with foreign lands and their peoples, and its eventual conflict with the Greek states. Throughout this narrative, a key theme becomes that of the rise and fall of arrogant kings who, driven by past successes and overconfidence in the course of future events, go a …