The History
1、重点词汇 （1）、remembrance：纪念品；提醒者；提示者；the ability to recall past occurrences; a recognition of meritorious service (2)、dwelt on：详述；细述 （3）、freight： 运送；装货 使充满 (v.) transport commercially as cargo; load with goods for transportation； 货运；运费；船货（n.） goods carried by a large vehicle; transporting goods commercially at rates cheaper than expre rates; the charge for transporting something by common carrier
freighting: 海上运送契约
(4)、carry off: 夺去；获得；使丧命；
(5)、restitution：恢复；赔偿；归还（n.）
a sum of money paid in compensation for lo or injury ; the act of restoring something to its original state; getting something back again (7)、seizure： 没收；夺取；捕获 （n.）
a sudden occurrence (or recurrence) of a disease; the act of forcibly dispoeing an owner of property; the act of taking of a person by force; the taking poeion of something by legal proce (8)、sovereignty：主权；主权国家；君主；独立国
government free from external control；
royal authority; the dominion of a monarch； the authority of a state to govern another state （9）、endeavor：竭力做到，试图或力图（做某事）（v.）
attempt by employing effort (10)、perish：死亡；毁灭；腐烂；枯萎（v.） pa from physical life and lose all bodily attributes and functions neceary to sustain life (11)、prophecy：预言；预言书；预言能力
knowledge of the future (usually said to be obtained from a divine source)； a prediction uttered under divine inspiration （12）、exploit：开发，开拓；剥削；开采（v.）use or manipulate to one\'s advantage; draw from; make good use of; work exceively hard
勋绩;功绩(n.) a notable achievement (13)、plunder：抢夺；战利品；掠夺品（n.）goods or money obtained illegally 掠夺；抢劫；侵吞(v.) take illegally; of intellectual property; plunder (a town) after capture; steal goods; take as spoils; destroy and strip of its poeion (14)、despatch：派遣；发送；（n.v.）send away towards a designated goal (v.) an official report (usually sent in haste); killing a person or animal; the act of sending off something
2、精彩摘抄
（1）、Candaules was in love with his own wife; and not only so, but thought her the fairest woman in the whole world.This fancy had strange consequences.There was in his bodyguard a man whom he specially favoured Gyges, the son of Dascylus.All affairs of greatest moment were entrusted by Candaules to this person, and to him he was wont to extol the surpaing beauty of his wife.So matters went on for a while.At length, one day, Candaules, who was fated to end ill, thus addreed his follower: \"I see thou dost not credit what I tell thee of my lady\'s loveline; but come now, since men\'s ears are le credulous than their eyes, contrive some means whereby thou mayest behold her naked.\" At this the other loudly exclaimed, saying, \"What most unwise speech is this, master, which thou hast uttered? Wouldst thou have me behold my mistre when she is naked? Bethink thee that a woman, with her clothes, puts off her bashfulne.Our fathers, in time past, distinguished right and wrong plainly enough, and it is our wisdom to submit to be taught by them.There is an old saying, Let each look on his own.\' I hold thy wife for the fairest of all women.Only, I beseech they, ask me not to do wickedly.\" （2）、On the death of Alyattes, Croesus, his son, who was thirty-five years old, succeeded to the throne.Of the Greek cities, Ephesus was the first that he attacked.The Ephesians, when he laid siege to the place, made an offering of their city to Diana, by stretching a rope from the town wall to the temple of the godde, which was distant from the ancient city, then besieged by Croesus, a space of seven furlongs.They were, as I said, the first Greeks whom he attacked.Afterwards, on some pretext or other, he made war in turn upon every Ionian and Aeolian state, bringing forward, where he could, a substantial ground of complaint; where such failed him, advancing some poor excuse.In this way he made himself master of all the Greek cities in Asia, and forced them to become his tributaries。 （3）、At the end of this time the grief of Croesus was interrupted by intelligence from abroad.He learnt that Cyrus, the son of Cambyses, had destroyed the empire of Astyages, the son of Cyaxares; and that the Persians were becoming daily more powerful.This led him to consider with himself whether it were poible to check the growing power of that people before it came to a head.
The meengers who were despatched to make trial of the oracles were given the following instructions: they were to keep count of the days from the time of their leaving Sardis, and, reckoning from that date, on the hundredth day they were to consult the oracles, and to inquire of them what Croesus the son of Alyattes, king of Lydia, was doing at that moment.The answers given them were to be taken down in writing, and brought back to him.None of the replies remain on record except that of the oracle at Delphi.There, the moment that the Lydians entered the sanctuary, and before they put their questions, the Pythone thus answered them in hexameter verse:-
I can count the sands, and I can measure the ocean;
I have ears for the silent, and know what the dumb man meaneth; Lo! on my sense there striketh the smell of a shell-covered tortoise, Boiling now on a fire, with the flesh of a lamb, in a cauldron- Bra is the veel below, and bra the cover above it
3、背景
（1）希罗多德：生活在公元前5世纪，青年时期的希罗多德曾参与城邦政治斗争，反对僭主吕格达米斯，失败后遭放逐。他的这一政治经历似乎决定了他对希腊政体的价值评估。在他的《历史》中始终对民主制持肯定态度，对自由充满感情。这样的政治立场在古希腊思想家中并不多见，因为大多数思想家是古希腊民主政体的批评者和贵族共和制的拥护者。可能在放逐时期，也可能在此前后，希罗多德进行过广泛的旅游，到过埃及、巴勒斯坦、两河流域、南俄、希腊半岛等地，并长期在雅典居住，同雅典著名民主派政治家伯利克里过从密。
希罗多德选择了希波战争为自己调查研究的课题，他的整个少年和青年时期都处在那场战争的巨大漩锅之中。战争旷日持久，影响到东地中海地区整整两代以上的希腊人，形成他们一生难以解脱的情结。因此经历过战争的早期希腊史家都对战争表现了浓厚兴趣，相当多的选题围绕着这一重大历史事件。在希波战争问题上，他站在希腊的立场，斥责波斯王的侵略行动，指出其蹂躏他国领土的不义之举。在希腊各邦中，他尽力讴歌的是雅典。他十分推崇雅典的民主政治，热忱歌颂它的民主自由与权利平等。
希罗多德在欧洲史坛最先对史料采取了一定程度的分析批判态度。他创造了叙述历史的新方法，把记载史实和加以阐释有机地结合起来。对于历史事件的原因的分析，诉诸神的意志和命运，取决于个别人物的才能，借助于对历史或地理情况的分析。
（2）、Lydia：ancient land of western Anatolia, extending east from the Aegean Sea and occupying the valleys of the Hermus and Cayster rivers.The Lydians were said to be the originators of gold and silver coins.During their brief hegemony over Asia Minor from the middle of the 7th to the middle of the 6th century bc, the Lydians profoundly influenced the Ionian Greeks to their west.Croesus：last king of Lydia，He conquered the Greeks of mainland Ionia (on the west coast of Anatolia) and was in turn subjugated by the Persians.After a battle with Persian at Pteria, Cyrus pursued him, caught him completely by surprise, and stormed the city.Herodotus claims that the King, condemned by Cyrus to be burned alive, was saved by the god Apollo and eventually accompanied Cyrus’ succeor, Cambyses II, to Egypt.Candaules and Gyges: Candaules bragged of his wife\'s incredible beauty to his favorite bodyguard Gyges.Gyges had no choice but to obey.Candaules detailed a plan by which Gyges would hide behind a door in the royal bedroom to observe the Queen disrobing before bed.Gyges would then leave the room while the Queen\'s back was turned.However, the Queen saw Gyges as he left the room, recognized that she had been betrayed and shamed by her own husband.She silently swore to have her revenge.The next day, the Queen summoned Gyges to her chamber, she confronted him immediately with her knowledge of his misdeed and her husband\'s.\"One of you must die,\" she declared.Eventually Gyges chose to betray the King so that he should live.He killed the king in his sleep.Gyges married the Queen and became King, and father to the Mermnad Dynasty.
4、感悟
有文章可以看出希罗多德对历史的描述更多是建立在主观的认识之上，史料来源也多为露头资料，对于许多事件的介绍也多与神话、传奇相联系，当然，这是由当时的落后信息采集的条件决定，希罗多德的贡献不在于，用书籍记录了当时的场景，而是开创了一种记录历史的传统，开创了一套系统的历史著作的写作方法。
