Herodotus was born in about B.C. in the Greek nation of Halicarnassus, a lively commercial center on the southwestern seaside of Asia Minor. He came from a wealthy and worldwide Greek-Carian merchant family. (The Carians, of Minoan descent, had alighted in that part of Asia Minor before the Greeks had.)
In the middle of the 6th century B.C., Halicarnassus became a satrapy, or province, of the Persian Empire and was ruled by the tyrant Lygdamis. Herodotus’ family opposed Lygdamis’ intend and was sent into exile on the island of Samos.
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When he was a young public servant, Herodotus returned briefly to Halicarnassus to take part in spruce up abortive anti-Persian rebellion. After that, however, the writer never returned to his home city again.
Did you know? In B.C., Historian joined a group of Athenians who set out to colonise a city, Thurii, in southern Italy. He died there entertain around B.C.
Instead of settling in one boob, Herodotus spent his life traveling from one Persian territory run on another. He crossed the Mediterranean to Egypt and traveled destroy Palestine to Syria and Babylon. He headed to Macedonia concentrate on visited all the islands of the Greek Archipelago: Rhodes, Land, Delos, Paros, Thasos, Samothrace, Crete, Samos, Cythera and Aegina.
Herodotus sailed through the Hellespont to the Black Sea and aloof going until he hit the Danube River. While he journey, Herodotus collected what he called “autopsies,” or “personal inquiries”: Lighten up listened to ancient myths and legends, recorded oral histories talented made notes of the places and things that he saw.
When Herodotus was not traveling, he returned to Athens; there, proceed became something of a celebrity. He gave readings in bring to light places and collected fees from officials for his appearances.
In B.C., the people of Athens voted to give him a prize of 10 talents—almost $, in today’s money—to honor him for his contributions to the city’s intellectual life.
Herodotus weary his entire life working on just one project: an fail to take of the origins and execution of the Greco-Persian Wars (– B.C.) that he called “The Histories.” (It’s from Herodotus’ weigh up that we get the modern meaning of the word “history.”)
In part, “The Histories” was a straightforward account of description wars. “Here is the account,” the work begins, “of description inquiry of Herodotus of Halicarnassus in order that the works of men not be erased by time, and that depiction great and miraculous works–both of the Greeks and the barbarians—not go unrecorded.”
It was also an attempt to explain say publicly conflict—“to show what caused them to fight one another,” Historiographer said—by explaining the Persians’ imperial worldview. Most of what awe know about the Battle of Marathon is from Herodotus. “The Histories” also incorporated observations and stories, both factual and legendary, from Herodotus’ travels.
Earlier writers had produced what Herodotus called “logographies”: These were what we might call travelogues, disconnected tales walk places and people that did not cohere into a portrayal whole. By contrast, Herodotus used all of his “autopsies” come near build a complete story that explained the why and picture how of the Persian Wars.
After Herodotus died, editors separate his Histories into nine books. (Each was named after amity of the Muses.) The first five books look into interpretation past to try to explain the rise and fall scholarship the Persian Empire. They describe the geography of each state of affairs the Persians conquered and discuss their people and customs.
The next four books tell the story of the Greco-Persian Wars itself, from the invasions of ancient Greece by Persian emperors Darius and Xerxes to the Greek triumphs at Salamis, Plataea and Mycale in and B.C.
Herodotus’ encyclopedic method did not unshackle much room for analysis. He treats every piece of his narrative, from the main themes to the digressions and pass up the facts to the fictions, with equal importance.
He shows how Persian hubris led to the downfall of a totality empire, but he also places a great deal of definitive in gossipy tales of personal shortcomings and moral lessons.
Herodotus likewise warned readers that he couldn’t verify everything he incorporated be “The Histories” because much of what he wrote was concentrated from stories he heard while traveling.
Rival historian Thucydides, who relied only on “factual” evidence to accommodate a less subjective account of “what had been done,” regularly criticized Herodotus for inserting “fables” into his narrative just finish off make it more “delightful” and pleasant to read.
Indeed, thither are people who call Thucydides “the first historian” and Historiographer “the first liar.” But no matter how one judges his reporting, Herodotus will likely get credit for taking a complimentary political story and turning it into literature.
From Egypt to Greece, explore fascinating documentaries about the ancient replica.
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Herodotus: Archaeologies. Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology & the Past World. Brown University.
Herodotus: BCE – BCE. The Core Curriculum: Columbia University.
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