Who was Herodotus?

Answer 1

The Greek researcher and storyteller Herodotus of Halicarnassus (fifth century BCE) was the world's first historian. In The Histories, he describes the expansion of the Achaemenid empire under its kings Cyrus the Great, Cambyses and Darius I the Great, culminating in king Xerxes' expedition in 480 BCE against the Greeks, which met with disaster in the naval engagement at Salamis and the battles at Plataea and Mycale. Herodotus' remarkable book also contains excellent ethnographic descriptions of the peoples that the Persians have conquered, fairy tales, gossip, legends, and a very humanitarian morale.

Answer 2

Herodotus of Halicarnassus was a Dorian Greek historian who lived in the 5th century from 484 BC to 425 BC. He is almost singularly known for writing The Histories, a collection of 'inquiries' into the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars which occurred in 490 and 480-479 BCE — especially since he includes a narrative account of that period of time, which would otherwise be poorly documented. Most of what is known of his life has been gathered from his own work. There was a duration of exile from his home-city of Hal-i-car-nas-sus during which it may have been that he undertook the broad journeys which he describes in The Histories. These journeys took him to many places such as Egypt as far south as the first cataract of the Nile, to Ukraine, Italy and Sicily. Although his description of Babylon contains highly suggestive remarks he does not actually claim to have visited the city. He lived for a period in Athens and became familiar with the oral traditions of the prominent families, in particular the Alkmaeonidai, to which Pericles belonged. The Athenians did not accept foreigners as citizens and Herodotus would have felt distinctly out of place there. When Athens sought citizens for the Greek colony at Thurii in 444 BCE, Herodotus' name was among the willing, according to the Suda. Whether or not he died in his adopted city is uncertain. At an unknown point in Herodotus’s life he became a logios. That is he was a teller of stories written in prose (the ordinary form of spoken or written language, without metrical structure, as distinguished from poetry or verse). It is important to emphasize that his work was originally presented orally, and was designed to have a sort of theatrical element to it. His subject matter often encompassed battles, other political incidents of note, and, especially, the marvels of foreign lands. He made tours of the Greek cities and the major religious and athletic festivals, where he offered performances and expected payment. In 431 BCE, the Peloponnesian War broke out between Athens and Sparta. It may have been that conflict that inspired him to collect his stories into a continuous narrative. Centering as they do on the theme of Persia's imperial progress, which only a united Athens and Sparta had managed to resist, he may have intended them as a critique of, or an attack upon, the war-mongering that threatened to overwhelm the entire Greek world.

Answer 3

He was known as the father of history who chronicled many different events in Greek history as the war between the Greek and the Persians ,the Peloponnesian war , and the lives of the great philosophers Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle etc.

Answer 4

A Greek historian who could be considered the father of history. Chronicled the Persian Wars and other aspects. He tended to exaggerate however.

Answer 5

The Father of History. He wrote a famous history of the world and was Greek. You can find his Histories online in pdf format.

Answer 6

classical Greek, known as the father of history.