Herodotus was a prehistoric Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria (modern day Bodrum, Turkey) and lived in the fifth century BC (c. 484–425 BC). He has been called “The Father of History”, and was the first historian identified to gather his materials thoroughly, test their correctness to a sure scope, and position them in a well-constructed and bright description. The Histories—his masterpiece and the only work he is known to have produced—is a greatest of his “inquiry”, being an examination of the ancestries of the Greco-Persian Wars and counting a wealth of geographical and ethnographical material. Although some of his stories were imaginary, he demanded he was reportage only what had been told to him. Little is known of his individual history.
Contemporary scholars usually turn to Herodotus’s own writing for dependable information about his life, actual prudently supplemented with other prehistoric yet much later sources, such as the Byzantine Suda:
“The data are so few—they rest upon such late and slight authority; they are so improbable or so contradictory, that to compile them into a biography is like building a house of cards, which the first breath of criticism will blow to the ground. Still, certain points may be approximately fixed…”
—George Rawlinson.
As Herodotus himself discloses, Halicarnassus, though a Dorian city, had ended its close relations with its Dorian neighbours after an inappropriate quarrel, and it had helped innovator Greek trade with Egypt. It was therefore an outward-looking, international-minded port within the Persian Empire and the historian’s family could well have had contacts in countries under Persian rule, enabling his travels and his investigates. His eye-witness explanations designate that he travelled in Egypt perhaps sometime after 454 BC or perhaps preceding in connotation with Athenians, after an Athenian fleet had aided the uprising in contradiction of Persian rule in 460–454 BC. He possibly travelled to Tyre next and then down the Euphrates to Babylon. For some cause, possibly related with local politics, he consequently found himself unpopular in Halicarnassus and, sometime around 447 BC, he travelled to Periclean Athens, a city for whose people and democratic institutions he states his exposed admiration and where he came to know not just leading citizens such as the Alcmaeonids, a clan whose history topographies regularly in his writing, but also the local topography. According to Eusebius and Plutarch, Herodotus was granted a financial prize by the Athenian assembly in gratitude of his work and there may be some truth in this. It is conceivable that he functional for Athenian citizenship—a rare honour after 451 BC, necessitating two distinct votes by a well-attended assembly—but was ineffective. In 443 BC, or presently afterwards, he migrated to Thurium as part of an Athenian-sponsored colony. Aristotle refers to a version of The Histories written by ‘Herodotus of Thurium’ and indeed some passages in the Histories have been interpreted as proof that he wrote about southern Italy from personal experience there. Intimate knowledge of some events in the first years of the Peloponnesian War indicate that he might have returned to Athens, in which case it is possible that he died there during an outbreak of the plague. Possibly he died in Macedonia instead after obtaining the patronage of the court there or else he died back in Thurium. There is nothing in the Histories that can be dated with any certainty to later than 430, and it is generally assumed that he died not long afterwards, possibly before his sixtieth year.
Herodotus wrote his Histories in the Ionian dialect yet he was born in Halicarnassus, originally a Dorian settlement. According to the Suda (an 11th-century encyclopaedia of Byzantium which likely took its information from traditional accounts), Herodotus learned the Ionian dialect as a boy living on the island of Samos, whither he had escaped with his family from the dominations of Lygdamis, oppressor of Halicarnassus and grandson of Artemisia I of Caria. The Suda also notifies us that Herodotus later reimbursed home to lead the revolt that ultimately conquered the oppressor. However, thanks to current detections of some engravings on Halicarnassus, dated to about that time, we now know that the Ionic vernacular was used there even in official documents, so there was no essential to assume like the Suda that he must have erudite the talk elsewhere. Moreover, the fact that the Suda is the only cause we have for the heroic role frolicked by Herodotus, as deliverer of his origin, is itself a good motive to doubt such a romantic account.
It was conservative in Herodotus’s day for authors to ‘publish’ their works by declaiming them at popular centenaries. According to Lucian, Herodotus took his complete work straight from Asia Minor to the Olympic Games and read the complete Histories to the accumulated audiences in one sitting, getting rapturous clapping at the end of it. According to a very dissimilar account by an antique grammarian, Herodotus declined to begin reading his work at the anniversary of Olympia until some clouds offered him a bit of shade, by which time however the meeting had dispersed—thus the proverbial expression “Herodotus and his shade” to designate someone who misses an chance through delay. Herodotus’s recital at Olympia was a beloved theme among earliest writers and there is another stimulating difference on the story to be found in the Suda, Photius and Tzetzes, in which a young Thucydides happened to be in the assembly with his father and burst into waterworks during the recital, whereupon Herodotus experiential predictively to the boy’s father: “Thy son’s soul yearns for knowledge.”
Ultimately, Thucydides and Herodotus became close sufficient for both to be buried in Thucydides’ tomb in Athens. Such at least was the opinion of Marcellinus in his Life of Thucydides. According to the Suda, he was suppressed in Macedonian Pella and in the agora in Thurium. As Herodotus himself discloses, Halicarnassus, though a Dorian city, had ended its close relations with its Dorian neighbours after an inappropriate quarrel, and it had helped innovator Greek trade with Egypt. It was therefore an outward-looking, international-minded port within the Persian Empire and the historian’s family could well have had contacts in countries under Persian rule, enabling his travels and his investigates. His eye-witness accounts designate that he travelled in Egypt possibly sometime after 454 BC or probably previous in association with Athenians, after an Athenian fleet had assisted the uprising against Persian rule in 460–454 BC. He possibly travelled to Tyre next and then down the Euphrates to Babylon. For some reason, possibly connected with local politics, he consequently found himself unpopular in Halicarnassus and, sometime around 447 BC, he transferred to Periclean Athens, a city for whose people and democratic institutions he announces his open approbation and where he came to know not just leading citizens such as the Alcmaeonids, a clan whose history topographies often in his writing, but also the local features. According to Eusebius and Plutarch, Herodotus was granted a financial reward by the Athenian assembly in gratitude of his work and there may be some truth in this. It is probable that he applied for Athenian citizenship—a rare honour after 451 BC, necessitating two distinct votes by a well-attended assembly—but was ineffective. In 443 BC, or shortly afterwards, he travelled to Thurium as part of an Athenian-sponsored colony. Aristotle refers to a version of The Histories written by ‘Herodotus of Thurium’ and certainly some passages in the Histories have been understood as proof that he wrote about southern Italy from personal knowledge there. Cherished knowledge of some events in the first years of the Peloponnesian War designate that he might have returned to Athens, in which case it is probable that he died there during an outbreak of the plague. Probably he died in Macedonia in its place after obtaining the benefaction of the court there or else he died back in Thurium. There is nothing in the Histories that can be dated with any inevitability to later than 430, and it is usually expected that he died not long afterwards, conceivably before his sixtieth year.
Source: Wikipedia
