The fifth Book of Herodotus’ Histories is pivotal to the overall concept of the work. The first four books describe the rise of the Persian Empire, its character, capabilities and resources, as well as providing historical information on major Greek states which were to play a role in the Persian Wars. In addition, the reader is confronted with the awesome spectacle of the invincible movement westwards of the Persian Empire to the point where confrontation with the states of mainland Greece becomes inevitable. All that was needed was a spark to ignite the powder keg, and this was provided by the Ionian Revolt which forms the dominant theme of Books 5 and 6. Herodotus himself has no doubt as to the critical role of the Athenian involvement in the revolt in bringing on the massive confrontation between the states of the mainland and the Persian Empire which form the focus of attention from Book 5 onwards. However, whilst the Ionian Revolt is the dominant theme, the book contains a host of other good things which serve essentially to contextualise protagonists and events: the location and ethnography of the peoples of Thrace and Western Asia Minor with the usual leavening of fantasy as the narrative moves further from the areas which the Greeks knew from personal experience; the invasion of Paeonia; a lethal contretemps over sexual ethics between Persians and Macedonians which includes Herodotus’ endorsement of the Greek credentials of the Macedonian royal family; the Phoenician origin of the Greek alphabet; some insights into the workings of the Spartan system and Spartan colonisation in Magna Graecia; a short excursus on the geography of the western provinces of the Persian Empire; a very important account of early Athenian history which embraces the Conspiracy of Cylon, the expulsion of the tyrants from Athens, and the moral effect which it had on the Athenians; a discussion of the reforms of Cleisthenes; Spartan efforts to maintain their influence at Athens in the uncertain post-tyranny political climate; a discussion of the tyranny at Corinth; and an account of Athenian conflicts with Thebes and Aegina.

All of this material provides rich pabulum for any commentator, and H. avails himself fully of all that is on offer. The main body of his book is divided into three sections. The introduction covers a wide range of material: the place of Books 5 and 6 in the work as a whole; the causes of the Ionian Revolt; chronology; kinship ties; personal names; religion; and language and dialect. The introduction is followed by the Greek text and that, in turn, by the commentary. All this material is complemented by a list of works cited, indexes and a collection of five maps.

As an introduction to the discussion of the place of Books 5 and 6 in the Histories H. supports the standard view that the book divisions which we now have do not go back to Herodotus but are of Alexandrian origin. However, here and throughout he rightly insists that the two books form an organic whole with their main theme the Ionian Revolt and its immediate ramifications. He does, however, recognise the rich web of cross references with other sections of the Histories. On moving to the intriguing question of the causes of the Ionian Revolt he is, quite rightly, far from simplistic. Like Herodotus himself H. places firmly in the foreground the personal motivations of Histiaeus and Aristagoras whom he aptly describes as ‘a couple of plausible chancers’, and is particularly perceptive on the possible disruptive ramifications of the reforms of Cleisthenes on political perceptions in the wider Greek world in generating the notion that there were alternative forms of polity to tyranny, the favoured Persian instrument of control in Greek cities. The allocation of desirable land to Persians can also hardly have failed to excite resentment. Once the revolt had started, kinship relations such as those between colony and mother city also played a role, a theme which H. develops further in Section 4 of the introduction.

H. finds no great difficulty in establishing a broad chronological framework for the events covered by Book 5 with the exception of the tail end of the book where there are strong grounds for suspecting that Herodotus has been guilty of severe compression of events. For all that, H. is convinced that a substantial amount of research underpins the narrative of the revolt. He particularly develops this point in the rather unexpected section dealing with the personal names in Books 5 and 6 which he introduces with the intriguing comment: ‘Personal names provide a check on a historian's accuracy’. His argument here is that they provide a litmus test of the authenticity of traditions, and there are certainly rich pickings to be had. Unequivocally Milesian names are easily identified, and the names point to the conclusion that Aristagoras and Histiaeus ‘belong to a cluster of families which onomastic evidence suggests was a wealthy elite’ (p. 28). Carian, Lydian and Persian names are much less frequent but nevertheless serve to locate the narrative firmly in its historical context.

The role of religion in the narrative is addressed in Section 6. H. rightly emphasises that the narrative unfolds ‘on a human level’, but he is cautious about taking this too far. His detailed survey covers all aspects of the issue, and he comes to the conclusion that: ‘The most persistent way in which religion plays a role in bks 5 and 6, and especially bk 5, is by interstate transactions involving heroes and their relics or statues’ (p. 41). Whilst this is indisputable, in my view – and I suspect H. would not disagree – Herodotus was operating within a conceptual world where the divine and the human interpenetrate each other in complex ways. The divine is always present, sometimes passive, sometimes active, an overarching divinely policed cosmic moral law which is ineluctable.

In the face of such an embarrassment of riches it seems churlish to raise any quibble, but there is one issue whose omission I regret. There is much in Herodotus which is simply not history – the constitutions debate in Book 3 being a conspicuous example. Whilst there is a matrix of fact underpinning Herodotus’ work, and he tries to present what we might call a more or less historical narrative, he allows himself a considerable degree of latitude in mobilising literary embellishments to make the points he wants to make. Comments in H.'s book make it quite clear that he is sensitive to this issue, but I should have welcomed a section in the introduction which addressed the matter explicitly.

Section 7, written by A.M. Bowie, is devoted to language and dialect. This is an excellent introduction to the topic, and it frankly recognises that, in morphology and orthography, we are confronted with considerable confusion, a confusion which we can attenuate but not eradicate. Fortunately for the historian the minutiae of textual criticism can rarely have a significant effect. The brief guide to Herodotus’ language is useful but could perhaps be extended. This section leads on naturally to the Greek text which is based, almost inevitably, on Hude with a much leaner apparatus criticus, but H. has been able to benefit from the new Oxford Classical Texts edition by N. Wilson which has brought significant improvements. The two major textual problems of the book, those at chapters 27 and 88, are dealt with judiciously. He accepts, with Valckenaer, that there is a lacuna in the first, and he saves the unintelligible dative Argives and Aeginetans in chapter 88 by accepting Hude's proposal to convert both to the accusative, easily the best solution.

The commentary, which forms the bulk of the work, shows all the qualities which the introduction would lead the reader to expect: a profound, considered and sympathetic acquaintance with the text: a formidable grasp of data, both Greek and otherwise; and complete control of the formidable body of scholarship which has been devoted to the subject. H. has placed the study of Book 5 on a completely new plane, and it is most unlikely that his work will be superseded any time soon.