Herodotus as a historian is a figure of great controversy. Depending on what point in history you’re looking at, the general consensus of Herodotus is either that of great veneration or great scorn. In the first century BC, Roman orator Cicero credited Herodotus as being the first person to view History as its own discipline and to write a proper historical text. In fact, Herodotus is the reason we call the study of the past “history” the preface to The Histories states “Herodotus, from Halicarnassus, here displays his enquiries, that human achievement may be spared the ravages of time” the Greek word for “enquiries” is “ἱστορίης (historis)” etymologically speaking, the word history means something along the lines of “the study of enquiries”. Herodotus is also a very important source on Classical Greece, as he is the only major source on the Greco-Persian Wars.

The main narrative of The Histories are the wars between Greece and Persia throughout the fifth century BC. Herodotus, however, is infamous for derailing quite a bit throughout his work, whenever a nation or an ethnic group is mentioned, Herodotus will usually give the readers information on the customs, religion, and sometimes the history of the group. Herodotus is also very concerned with explaining in great detail the background to the Greco-Persian Wars, he wants to establish where the distrust between the Greeks and Persians originated, Book One of The Histories takes the conflict between Greece and Persia all the way back to the time of the Trojan War. In fact, the War itself is not discussed until around the halfway point of the text, the first half is dedicated to providing context behind the War.

The Histories is divided into nine books.

Book One describes the rise of the Persian Empire with a rather extensive biography of Cyrus the Great and his conquests, the conquest of Babylon, Media, and especially Lydia are highlighted. There is a very detailed account on the reign of Croesus, the final king of Lydia before its conquest by Cyrus.

Book Two starts with narrating the conquest of Egypt by Cambyses II, the successor of Cyrus. Herodotus here goes on a very long tangent on the geography, culture, and history of Egypt; the description of Egypt covers the entirety of Book Two (in the Penguin Books version of The Histories, this section is 80 pages).

Book Three gives more information on the reign of Cambyses, then the reign of Smerdis following Cambyses’ death, and the coup d’etat by Darius against Smerdis. Darius takes the throne of Persia after he kills Smerdis.

Book Four tells of the Persians’ failed attempt to conquer the nomadic Scythians, followed by an account of some more successful conquests of Persia.

Book Five tells of early Persian conquests in Greece. It is here the main narrative picks up as the book concludes with the beginning of the Ionian Revolt.

Book Six chronicles the end of the Ionian Revolt with early battles such as the Battle of Lade. It also describes the relationship between Athens and Sparta. It is Book Six that narrates the famous Battle of Marathon.

Book Seven tells of the death of Darius, and Xerxes’ continuation of the fight against the Greeks. The Battle of Thermopylae is chronicled here.

Book Eight is a description of the Battles of Artemisium and Salamis, which Herodotus claims occurred on the same day (EDIT: Herodotus claims the Battles of Plataea and Mycale occurred on the same day in Book Nine. He does not make this claim in regards to Artemisium and Salamis). Book Eight describes the changing dynamic of the Greco-Persian Wars, as the battles go from mainly Persian victories to Greek victories.

Book Nine tells of the Greeks fighting the Persians out of Greece.

The accuracy of Herodotus’ work has fallen into question. Just as much as Cicero has praised Herodotus, later historians saw him merely as a story-teller, giving him the unappealing nickname “the Father of Lies”. Herodotus infamously often presents mythological stories the same as historical stories. Some of the claims made by Herodotus are comically inaccurate, such as his claim that Egyptians and Ethiopians have black semen (Herodotus 3:101), or his rather lengthy story on the Greek mythological figure Arion spliced within his account of Lydian kings (Herodotus 1:24). Some claims look foolish by today’s standard, but have been theorized to simply appear silly by means of bad communication. When describing India, Herodotus makes the odd assertion there are ants in India the size of foxes that sometimes dig up gold when they burrow underground (Herodotus 3:102). It has been suggested by ethnologist Michel Peissal that the “ants” mentioned here are really marmots, and that Herodotus may have been confused when hearing the Persian word for marmot (literally “mountain ant”).

The Greco-Persian Wars were still being fought for much of the time Herodotus was alive, they were still in very recent memory by the time he wrote The Histories (The Greco-Persian Wars ended in 449 BC, The Histories were written around 430 BC). As such, the details regarding the Greco-Persian Wars itself are more or less factual; the numbers given by Herodotus, however, have been under scrutiny, Herodotus often exaggerates how many Persians there were in battles and downplays how many Greeks there were to make Greek victory more impressive, and Greek losses less humiliating. Other stories narrated in The Histories have also fallen under question, such as the coup against the Persian king Smerdis by Darius. Herodotus claims the king before Darius was not really Smerdis, the son of Cyrus, but an imposter who happened to share Smerdis’ name (Herodotus 3:65). This story of Darius overthrowing an imposter is also told in the Behistun Inscription, claimed to have been authored by Darius himself. The validity of this story, however, is one of controversy. It is believed this story may be nothing more than propaganda made to justify the overthrow of Smerdis by Darius.

In spite of the inaccuracies that are present in The Histories, Herodotus often cites his sources, when speaking of Egypt, he regularly clarifies whether he received the information he is telling by Egyptian priests, or if the information is based off of his own observations. When he chronicles early Egyptian history, he often makes mistakes in the chronology of Pharaohs, and tells stories of Pharaohs that did not exist. His later account of Egyptian history, however (roughly from the time of Psamtik I onward) is much more accurate than his earlier account. When reading Herodotus overall, make note of his Greek biases (even though he tries to be as nonpartisan as possible) and be aware of his larger tendency to make inaccuracies the more far back in history he goes.

I hope you enjoy reading Herodotus, I found The Histories to be a very fun read!

Sources

“Herodotus.” Encyclopedia of World Biography, Encyclopedia.com, 11 Dec. 2019, https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/history/historians-ancient-biographies/herodotus.

Herodotus. The Histories. Translated by Tom Holland, Penguin Books, 2013.

Mikalson, Jon D. Herodotus and Religion in the Persian Wars. The University of North Carolina Press, 2004.

Pipes, David. Herodotus: Father of History, Father of Lies. http://people.loyno.edu/~history/journal/1998-9/Pipes.htm.

“Full Text of ‘Cicero. De Oratore.’” Translated by E W Sutton, Archive, https://archive.org/stream/cicerodeoratore01ciceuoft/cicerodeoratore01ciceuoft_djvu.txt.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Greco-Persian Wars.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 18 Mar. 2019, https://www.britannica.com/event/Greco-Persian-Wars.

“The Gold Digging ‘Ants.’” Livius, 26 Oct. 2018, https://www.livius.org/sources/content/herodotus/the-gold-digging-ants/.