March 15, 2008


From Herodotus (4.46)

“The Scythians were more clever than any other people in making the most important discovery we know of concerning human affairs, though I do not admire them in other respects. They have discovered how to prevent any attacker from escaping them and how to make it impossible for anyone to overtake them against their will. For instead of establishing towns or walls, they are all mounted archers who carry their homes along with them and derive their sustenance not from cultivated fields but from their herds. Since they make their homes on carts, how could they not be invincible or impossible even to engage in battle?” In other words, they lived in RVs, yes? (trans. Andrea L. Purvis: in The Landmark Herodotus: The Histories, ed. by Robert B. Strassler, Pantheon, 2007)

posted by Cooper Renner in anthropology, architecture, culture 

comments

4 Responses to “From Herodotus (4.46)”

  1. Sheila Ryan on March 15th, 2008 at 12:25 pm

    Ah, so you did buy The Landmark Herodotus.

    I bet that note about RVs is not an editorial gloss from the book. I think that’s you talking, Cooper.

  2. Andrew Simone on March 15th, 2008 at 1:51 pm

    The Landmark version is key. I wish I owned it.

  3. Deron Bauman on March 15th, 2008 at 11:48 pm

    this is now making me think of the goRVing commercials with the Tom Selleck voice overs.

  4. CHurst on October 9th, 2008 at 7:46 am

    Yeah but it’s very clever isn’t it? How can you move an army against a people who are there one season and gone the next? It took nine years to sack Troy, remember. And the people have their homes with them. Forget about moving the army around after them, you could never get enough resources to that many soldiers. You’ve got to stick with what works, right?

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