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Herodotus, World's First Historian > 
The Greek researcher and storyteller Herodotus of Halicarnassus was the world's first historian. In The Histories, he describes the expansion of the Achaemenid empire under its kings Cyrus the Great, Cambyses and Darius I the Great, culminating in king Xerxes' expedition in 480 BCE against the Greeks, which met with disaster in the naval engagement at Salamis and the battles at Plataea and Mycale. Herodotus' remarkable book also contains excellent ethnographic descriptions of the peoples that the Persians have conquered, fairy tales, gossip, legends, and a very humanitarian morale.
Not much is known about Herodotus' life. The only reliable source we have is the book he wrote, known as The Histories, and this remarkable text gives us some clues that enable us to sketch the outlines of its writer's life. As its prologue shows, Herodotus was born in a town called Halicarnassus: modern Bodrum in southwestern Turkey. Not far from Herodotus' native city is the island Samos, which figures so prominently in The Histories, that it has been argued that Herodotus spent several years on it. The same argument applies to Athens: Herodotus may have spent some time in the leading Greek city of his age.
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More on this Website >
• http://www.livius.org/he-hg/he ... otus/herodotus01.htm
• Etexts : The History of Herodotus • Edit
• Herodotus website • Edit
• List of Books of Herodotus • Edit
• wikipedia.org • Edit
• Free Bible Dictionary • Edit
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Cyrus The Great, Founder of Persia
Cyrus was the first Achaemenid Emperor. He founded Persia by uniting the two original Iranian Tribes- the Medes and the Persians. Although he was known to be a great conq... |
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Darius The Great, King of Persia
Darius I: king of ancient Persia, whose reign lasted from 522 to 486. He seized power after killing king Gaumâta, fought a civil war (described in the Behistun inscriptio... |
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Leonidas, King of Sparta
Leonidas was a king of Sparta, the 17th of the Agiad line. He was one of the sons of King Anaxandridas II of Sparta, descendant of Heracles. He succeeded his half-brother... |
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Xerxes I, Persian King
Persian king (486 – 465 BC) of the Achaemenian dynasty. The son of Darius I, he had been governor of Babylon before his succession. He ferociously suppressed rebellions i... |
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The Persian Wars
Series of conflicts fought between Greek states and the Persian Empire. The writings of Herodotus, who was born c.484 B.C., are the great source of knowledge of the histo... |
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Battle of Marathon
In 490 B.C., 25,000 Persians under Darius landed on the Plain of Marathon. The Spartans were unwilling to provide help for the Athenians in time, so with the help of 1,00... |
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Battle of Thermopylae
In the Battle of Thermopylae of 480 BC, an alliance of Greek city-states fought the invading Persian Empire at the pass of Thermopylae in central Greece. Vastly outnumber... |
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Battle of Salamis
The Battle of Salamis was a naval battle between the Greek city-states and Persia in September, 480 BC in the strait between Piraeus and Salamis Island, a small island in... |
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Battle of Plataea, Defeat of the Persians
Battle between Greek and Persian forces near Plataea (modern Plataiaí) in Boeotia on the slopes of Mount Cithaeron. A largely Spartan force, including helots, defeated th... |
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Thucydides, Greek Historian
Thucydides was an ancient Greek historian, and the author of the History of the Peloponnesian War, which recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens. This w... |
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The Histories, Herodotus
The Histories is commonly thought of as the classic chronicle of the great 5th century BCE wars between the underdog confederacy of Greek city-states and the mighty Persi... |
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