History of Herodotus, Vol. 1 of 4: A New English Version, Edited with Copious Notes and Appendices

by Herodotus

Excerpt from History of Herodotus, Vol. 1 of 4: A New English Version, Edited With Copious Notes and Appendices

Translation George Rawlinson

600 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1859

About the author

Herodotus (Greek: Ηρόδοτος) (c. 484 – c. 425 BC) was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire (now Bodrum, Turkey) and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He is known for having written the Histories – a detailed account of the Greco-Persian Wars. Herodotus was the first writer to perform systematic investigation of historical events. He has been described as "The Father of History", a title conferred on him by the ancient Roman orator Marcus Tullius Cicero.
The Histories primarily cover the lives of prominent kings and famous battles such as Marathon, Thermopylae, Artemisium, Salamis, Plataea, and Mycale. His work deviates from the main topics to provide a cultural, ethnographical, geographical, and historiographical background that forms an essential part of the narrative and provides readers with a wellspring of additional information.
Herodotus has been criticized for his inclusion of "legends and fanciful accounts" in his work. The contemporaneous historian Thucydides accused him of making up stories for entertainment. However, Herodotus explained that he reported what he could see and was told. A sizable portion of the Histories has since been confirmed by modern historians and archaeologists.

Reviews

[Tanya Hurst · Rating 5 out of 5]

So glad I decided to slog through this again. It's Herodotus. How can one not love this stuff? Volume 2 is next on my radar (among other things).