Histories

Herodotus, “the Father of History,” researched and wrote the Histories in the middle of the 5th century BCE. Composed in the Ionic dialect of ancient Greek, this expansive account of the Greco-Persian war that occurred during the first two decades of the 5th century is the first prose masterpiece in European literature. The work traces the conflict between the Greek city-states and the Persian empire from its origins in the conquest of the Hellenic settlements of western Asia Minor to the successful repulse of the Persian invasions of mainland Greece in 490 and 480 BCE by a small and quarrelsome alliance of cities led by Athens and Sparta.

The heroic drama of Greek freedom triumphing over oriental despotism forms the main theme of Herodotus’ narrative, but he supplements this story with dozens of digressions treating the geography, zoology, botany, religion, and ethnography of the many lands and cultures encompassed in the broad sweep of his history. The ambitious breadth of his subject, concern with rationally explaining the causes of human action, and critical and empirical attitude he displays toward his sources of information have led to the distinction Herodotus enjoys of being considered the pioneer of the historical method.