The Old and the Restless - The Egyptians and the Scythians in Herodotus' Histories by Robert J. Hagan

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the horses looking over it and being frightened by the sight of the sea” (7.36). Herodotus cannot
restrain his interest in the technological achievements of his day. As James Romm remarks,
“Even when an aggressor nation forces a river out of its channel to expedite an invasion, as the
Lydians do at the river Halys - forcing the ambitions of empire to supersede the sanctity of the
terrestrial landscape - Herodotus pauses to admire the ingenuity with which the task might be
achieved.” 36
Herodotus has before stated that he will write much about Egypt because of its
“remarkable features” (2.35), which include the reconfiguring of the Nile under Min and
Sesostris. The Histories gives the colossal war projects of the Persians an amount of attention
equal to that devoted to the works of the kings Min and Sesostris, which were ostensibly done in
the interest of the kingdom, and which Herodotus implies benefited the people. These bridges
and diversions of the Persians are erga megala, some of the great works that Herodotus sets out
to preserve for posterity. Whereas the Egyptians tame nature to organize and vitalize the people,
Herodotus shows the Persians to view the natural world as another force to bring under their rule,
a conveyance that is integral to the reader’s perception of the Persian character in the Histories.
Persian Softness
In Books Six through Nine, we witness the full maturity of the Persian softness that has
grown from its initial roots in the time of Cyrus. The Persians’ soft nature, as displayed by the
behavior of their elite, is illuminated by its contrast with the hardness of the Greeks. Compared
to the Greeks, who subsist on marginally fertile lands and are hounded by the threat of poverty
36 Romm, J., “Herodotus and the Natural World” in Cambridge Guide to Herodotus, 189.