Herodotus Biography

Herodotus was a Greek historian widely referred to as 'The Father of History'. He lived in the fifth century BC and was a contemporary of Socrates. A major figure in Greek history, he was the first historian known to have broken from Homeric tradition to treat historical subjects as a method of investigation. He collected his materials systematically and critically, and then proceeded to arrange them into a historiographic narrative. Even though he is known to have produced only one work, ‘The Histories’, a record of his "inquiry" on the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars, this single work is regarded as the first great narrative history produced in the ancient world. He was believed to be a wide traveler, wandering over a large part of the Persian Empire, covering Egypt and Elephantine, and also visited numerous other places like Libya, Syria, Babylonia, Susa in Elam, Lydia, and Phrygia. He spent several years of his life exploring far away kingdoms and empires, and gained extensive experience and knowledge. One of the Herodotus’ remarkable features was that he narrated history in a storyteller’s manner, often inserting amusing anecdotes and interesting dialogues. Even though some of his accounts are believed to be inaccurate, he remains the leading source of original information of Greek history for the period between 550 and 479 BC.