''When I read Herodotus, I seem to hear some Eastern peasant narrate and “philosophize.” —Not for nothing had he traveled among the Scythians.''
E. M. Cioran, Drawn and Quartered
Can someone explain me why here we have the past perfect of ''to travel''? I know that the past perfect is used to talk about something that took place before another action in the past, but here I can't recognize any.
Answer
The two past events being related as prior to latter are (1) his travel among the Scythians and (2) his writing his book. That act of writing is in the past even though the reading experience is in the present, and it is conventional when writing about literature to express the events narrated therein in present tense. This conventional use of present tense may be what is throwing you off.
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