In this, the first prose history in European civilisation, Herodotus describes the growth of the Persian Empire with force, authority and style. Perhaps most famously, the book tells the heroic tale of the Greeks' resistance to the vast invading force assembled by Xerxes, King of Persia. Here are not only the great battles - Marathon, Thermopylae and Salamis - but also penetrating human insight and a powerful sense of epic destiny at work.