Herodotus

Herodotus (c. 484-425 bc), Greek historian, known as the “father of history”. He was born in Halicarnassus (modern Bodrum, Turkey), and is believed to have been exiled from the city in about 457 bc for conspiring against Persian rule. He probably went directly to Sámos, from where he travelled throughout Asia Minor, Babylonia, Egypt, and Greece. The direction and extent of his journeys are not precisely known, but they provided him with valuable first-hand knowledge of virtually the entire ancient Middle East. In about 447 bc he went to Athens, which at the time was the cultural centre of the Greek world (see Ancient Greece); there he won the admiration of the most distinguished men, including that of the great Athenian statesman Pericles. In 443 bc Herodotus settled in the Pan-Hellenic colony of Thurii, in southern Italy. He devoted the remainder of his life to the completion of his great work, entitled History, derived from the Greek word for “inquiry”.

Students of the History later divided it into nine books. The earlier books deal with the customs, legends, history, and traditions of the peoples of the ancient world, including the Lydians, Scythians, Medes, Persians, Assyrians, and Egyptians. The last three books describe the armed conflicts between Greece and Persia in the early 5th century bc (see Greece: The Persian Wars). The development of civilization is presented as moving inexorably towards a great confrontation between Persia and Greece, which he regarded as the centres, respectively, of Eastern and Western culture. Herodotus’ information was derived partly from the work of predecessors, and partly from the observations that he had made during his own extensive travels. Although he was sometimes inaccurate, he was generally careful to distinguish between plausible and implausible reports.

The History is the earliest major prose work. Both ancient and modern critics have paid tribute to its grandeur of design and its frank, lucid, and delightfully anecdotal style. Herodotus demonstrates a wide knowledge of Greek literature and contemporary rational thought. He believed the universe to be ruled by fate and chance, and that nothing in human affairs is stable. Moral choice remained important, however, since the gods often sought to punish the arrogant. This attempt to draw moral lessons from the study of great events formed the basis of Greek and Roman historiography.