The Histories

Introduction

Herodotus says he wrote so that the great deeds of men might not be forgotten with time, and to show why Greeks and barbarians went to war. In nine books, the first half reads like a journey round the world, describing the history and customs of the Lydians, Egyptians, Persians, Scythians and others, full of marvels and anecdotes; the second tells of the Persian invasions of Greece, through Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis and Plataea. It is the first Western work called an 'inquiry', historia, and our word history comes from it.