Introduction, Book VII (Text and Commentaries) Herodotus: The Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Books : Cambridge University Press : 9781108009683 : 1108009689 : 29 Aug 2013 : Fellow and Master of University College, Oxford, the classical scholar Reginald Walter Macan (1848-1941) published in 1908 this two-volume edition (in three parts) of the last books of Herodotus, which cover the Greco-Persian Wars during the period 486 to 479 BCE. Part 1 of Volume 1 contains an extensive introduction, addressing the characteristics of each book, followed by the text of Book 7 in Greek, with commentary and scholarly apparatus. Book 7 covers the Persian defeat at Marathon, the death of Darius, and the famous holding of the pass for three days by a Greek contingent at Thermopylae. Macan's edition, particularly valuable for its introduction, commentary maps, and extensive indexes, remains valuable to scholars of the history of textual criticism and the historiography of the classical world.