The Portable Greek Historians: The Essence of Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybius by Moses I. FinleyMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I originally purchased this book when I started college to prepare for my Senior Oral Exam, I skimmed but didn't really retain much of each writer's style save perhaps Herodotus. After thoroughly reading the excerpted selections for these four writers, I can say the my decision to skim it originally was the correct one. If M. I. Finley, the selector of this volume, gave an accurate representation of each writer through the excerpts he chose then Herodotus and Xenophon are the best readings while Thucydides gets bogged down in speeches and Polybius in the discourse of governmental comparisons. However if the excerpts aren't representative of each writer than the fault is with Finley.
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