E Rutherford, New Jersey, U.S.A.: Penguin USA, 1996. moderately creased cover; 622 pages; This book is a classic for all the ages. With it you get history, you get zoology, anthropology, myth, and geography. There are many funny things too. You will read about the gold digging ants and the ox that cooks itself. The history concerning the great Persian Wars are spiced up with the dramatics and an exaggeration of numbers. Herodotus believes that Xerses invading army was 3,000,000 strong not including the fleet. The army was so big that it took one week to cross the bridge over the Hellespont and they drank whole rivers dry, according to Herodotus. Read about the heroes of Marathon and Thermopylae in this epic battle between East and West.. Trade Paperback. Very Good.