Herodotus
(c.484-425BC)The "Father of History" was born in
Halicarnassus (today's Turkey). He was exiled from his city after having
conspired against the Persian rule, and went to Samos.
Herodotus was to make journeys to places like Asia Minor, Babylonia, Egypt
and Greece during his lifetime, and he wrote about the different people and
cultures he met.
It was Herodotus who was the first person to speak about the idea of the
free men of the west against the slaves of the east.
At the age of about 37 he went to Athens, and won the admiration of many
people, including Pericles and his good friend Sophocles.
A few years later he settled in southern Italy, in the Greek colony Thurii.
He was to spent the rest of his life working on his History, which describes the
history and civilization of the ancient world.
Herodotus tried to achieve objectivity and tried to separate what he held
for true and what he thought was unprobable.
He founded the grounds for historiography in trying to draw moral lessons
from various events, showing for example how the gods punish the arrogant.