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Herodotus wrote a history of the Persian invasion of Greece in the early fifth century B.C., known simply as The Histories of Herodotus. This work was recognized as a new form of literature soon after its publication. Before Herodotus, there had been chronicles and epics, and they too had preserved knowledge of the past. But Herodotus was the first not only to record the past but also to treat it as a philosophicalPhilosophy literally means 'love of wisdom' from the Greek 'philo' and 'sofia'. It is now widely used to designate the pursuit of knowledge or wisdom about fundamental matters concerning life, death, meaning, reality, being and truth. The term may also re problem, or research project, that could yield knowledge of human behavior.
His invention earned him the title "The Father of History" and the word he used for his achievement, historie, which previously had meant simply "research", took on its modern connotation of "history".
Conversely, however, many historians and philosophers who take a more sceptical view of Herodotus' accounts and narratives have a different name for him, dubbing him "The Father of Lies." Recent archaeologyArchaeology or archeology ( American English) is the study of human cultures through the recovery, documentation and analysis of material remains, including architecture, artefacts, biofacts, human remains, and landscapes. The goal of archaeology is to sh has begun to prove his Histories were largely accurate. In many cases, Herodotus, unsure of the exact history, would give the most prominent, competing historical accounts of a particular event or region, and then express his opinion as to which he believed was accurate, with an explanation of why.
The Histories was often attacked in the ancient world for bias, inaccuracy, and plagiarismPlagiarism refers to the use of another's ideas, information, language, or writing, when done without proper acknowledgment of the original source. Plagiarism is not necessarily the same as copyright infringement, which occurs when one violates copyright. Similar attacks have been made by a few modern scholars, who argue that Herodotus exaggerated the extent of his travels and fabricated sources. Respect for his accuracy has increased in the last half century, however, and he is now recognized not only as a pioneer in history but in ethnographyEthnography refers to the qualitative description of human social phenomena, based on months or years of fieldwork. Ethnography may be " holistic", describing a society as a whole, or it may focus on specific problems or situations within a larger social and anthropologyAnthropology (from the Greek word ANTHROPOLOGIA consists of the study of humankind (see genus Homo . It is holistic in two senses: it is concerned with all humans at all times, and with all dimensions of humanity. Central to anthropology is the concept of as well.
Published between 430 and 424 B.C., The Histories were divided by later editors into nine books, named after the Muses. The first six books deal with the growth of the Persian Empire. They begin with an account of the first Asian monarch to conquer Greek city-states and exact tribute, Croesus of Lydia. Croesus lost his kingdom to Cyrus, the founder of the Persian Empire. The first six books end with the defeat of the Persians in 490 B.C. at the Battle of Marathon, which was the first setback to their imperial progress. The last three books of The Histories describe the attempt of the Persian king Xerxes ten years later to avenge the Persian defeat at Marathon and absorb Greece into the Persian Empire. The Histories end with the year 479 B.C., when the Persian invaders were wiped out at the Battle of Plataea and the frontier of the Persian Empire receded to the Aegean coastline of Asia Minor.