10 in-print translations and 4 audiobooks, compared by who made them, when, and what each one is actually trying to do — Herodotus.
The short answer. There is no single best translation of The Histories, because the editions are optimised for different things: for a first read, the editions described as the most readable are Robin Waterfield, Aubrey de Selincourt, revised by John Marincola; on audio the choice is mostly which translation is being read and whether it is one narrator or a full cast.
Every claim below is the publisher’s or translator’s own description, shown next to it, so you can judge rather than take our word. And you can read the whole thing free on this site first.
Scriptorium Press publishes a complete new plain-English translation of The Histories, free, with a complete free audiobook. No account, no paywall — 9 works in this volume.
Start reading free → Free audiobook → Whole book on one page →Older translations, out of copyright, hosted free by Internet Archive, Perseus Digital Library, Project Gutenberg. Not our work and not affiliate links — they are here because they are genuinely useful.
| Translator | Year | What it is | |
|---|---|---|---|
| G. C. Macaulay (George Campbell Macaulay) | 1890 | Volume 1 (Books 1-4); companion Volume 2 at gutenberg.org/ebooks/2456; prose, widely used | Project Gutenberg → |
| A. D. Godley (Alfred Denis Godley) | 1920-1925 | Loeb prose translation, standard scholarly text, freely searchable/readable on Perseus | Perseus Digital Library → |
| George Rawlinson | 1858-1860 | The most famous 19th-century annotated edition; multiple scanned copies of the 4 volumes on Archive.org | Internet Archive → |
| Henry Cary | 1876 (reprint of 1848 original) | "A new and literal version from the text of Baehr"; literal prose rendering | Internet Archive → |
| G. C. Macaulay | 1890 | Standalone excerpt of Macaulay's Book II (Egypt) issued as its own Gutenberg ebook | Project Gutenberg → |
Sorted as the research file records them. The note on each row is that edition’s own published description.
| Translator | Year | Publisher | What it is | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Andrea L. Purvis | 2007 | Anchor Books (Pantheon/Random House) | prose; maps/appendices/essays by Robert Strassler; most-recommended modern edition | Find it |
| Robin Waterfield | 1998 | Oxford World's Classics | prose; readable scholarly standard, extensive notes | Find it |
| Tom Holland | 2013 | Penguin Classics | prose; acclaimed contemporary literary translation | Find it |
| Aubrey de Sélincourt (rev. John Marincola) | 1954 | Penguin Classics | prose; classic mid-century translation, revised edition still in print | Find it |
| David Grene | 1987 | University of Chicago Press | prose; scholarly, close to the Greek | Find it |
| A. D. Godley | 1920 | Loeb Classical Library (Harvard University Press) | Greek-English facing-page prose; scholarly standard reference edition | Find it |
| Walter Blanco | 1992 | W. W. Norton | prose; includes critical essays and background, popular for students | Find it |
| Andrea L. Purvis, edited by Robert B. Strassler | 2007 | Pantheon, The Landmark Herodotus | heavily annotated with maps, marginal notes and appendices; the best edition for study | Find it |
| Aubrey de Selincourt, revised by John Marincola | 2003 | Penguin Classics | the long-standing accessible standard, revised notes | Find it |
| Pamela Mensch | 2014 | Hackett | close and engrossing, with James Romm's notes | Find it |
Those are affiliate links. They cost you nothing extra and pay a small commission to the people who publish these editions, and to us.
The thing that most changes an audiobook of The Histories is which translation is being read — a scholarly text and a colloquial one are different listening experiences before the narrator says a word.
| Narrator | Translation read | Publisher | Year | Notes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| David Timson | Aubrey de Selincourt (rev.) | Naxos AudioBooks | 2016 | unabridged, ~27.5 hrs, AudioFile-praised | Listen |
| Charlton Griffin | A. D. Godley | Audio Connoisseur | 2007 | unabridged classic Loeb-era translation | Listen |
| Bernard Mayes | George Rawlinson | Blackstone Audio | 2007 | unabridged public-domain translation | Listen |
| Frank Laverty | Tom Holland (Penguin Classics) | Penguin Audio | 2014 | modern acclaimed translation, unabridged | Listen |
Affiliate links, including the Audible ones. They cost you nothing extra. Our own audiobook of The Histories stays free either way.
The editions described as the most readable are Robin Waterfield (1998), Aubrey de Selincourt, revised by John Marincola (2003). Their published descriptions emphasise pace and plain modern idiom rather than strict line-by-line fidelity, which is what makes them easier on a first pass.
The most frequently recommended are Robin Waterfield (1998), Tom Holland (2013), A. D. Godley (1920). "Most recommended" is not the same as "best for you": a scholarly standard and an easy first read are different books, and the table on this page shows which is which.
There are 4 commercial recordings. They differ mainly in which translation is being read and whether it is a single narrator or a full cast: David Timson reads Aubrey de Selincourt (rev.); Charlton Griffin reads A. D. Godley; Bernard Mayes reads George Rawlinson. A complete free audiobook of our own translation is also on this site.
Yes. Scriptorium Press publishes a complete new plain-English translation of The Histories free to read, with a complete free audiobook, no account and no paywall - 9 works in this volume.