HERODOTUS the great Greek historian was born about 484 B.C., at Halicarnassus in Caria, Asia Minor, when it was subject to the Persians. He travelled widely in most of Asia Minor, Egypt (as far as Assuan), North Africa, Syria, the country north of the Black Sea, and many parts of the Aegean Sea and the mainland of Greece. He lived, it seems, for some time in Athens, and in 443 went with other colonists to the new city Thurii (in South Italy) where he died about 430 B.C.

 

He was 'the prose correlative of the bard, a narrator of the deeds of real men, and a describer of foreign places' (Murray). His famous history of warfare between the Greeks and the Persians has an epic dignity which enhances his delightful style.​