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c. 484 – c. 425 B.C.

Herodotus

of Halicarnassus

Worth knowing

Cicero called him the father of history. Others, less kindly, called him the father of lies.
The Histories set out to explain why the Greeks and the Persians went to war, and wander happily into every custom and rumour he collected on the way.
He is the first Greek writer we have who tries to say where his information came from.

The book

HerodotusHerodotus, The HistoriesHistory

Who else was alive

Herodotus against everyone else in the game.

1050 B.C.800 B.C.550 B.C.300 B.C.50 B.C.A.D. 200A.D. 450

David Homer Herodotus Thucydides Plato Aristotle Virgil John Pliny the Elder Clement of Rome Ignatius An early Christian community Polycarp Claudius Ptolemy Hermas Justin Martyr Quadratus Melito Unknown authors writing under borrowed names Irenaeus The author of the Epistle to Diognetus Athenagoras Tertullian Marcus Minucius Felix Eusebius Augustine

Solid bar = firm dates · faded = approximate