Author

Books by Herodotus

Herodotus was born in Halicarnassus (modern Bodrum, Turkey) around 484 BCE and is known as the "father of history" — a title first given him by Cicero. He traveled extensively through Greece, Egypt, the Black Sea region, and the Near East, gathering oral traditions, interviewing witnesses, and examining physical evidence. He settled in Athens and later in the Athenian colony of Thurii in southern Italy, where he probably completed The Histories around 425 BCE. His work established the practice of inquiry-based historical writing and remained the primary source for knowledge of the Persian Wars until modern archaeology and epigraphy began to supplement and occasionally contradict it.