Herodotus

• Herodotus is a major source of the ancient world. Without him, we would know very little of ancient Greece. However, we don't actually know a great deal about him.
• He was born in Halicarnassus in Asia Minor (a Greek city that was under the control of the Persians at that time), probably in the 480s.
• He researched and wrote his work in the third quarter of the fifth century, which was several decades after the events he wrote about took place
• He seems to have lived in Athens for at least a part of his life
• He uses a variety of research methods and made use of many different sources (including oral, literary, archaeological and epigraphic) - although scholars agree that most of his sources were oral
• The majority of Herodotus' research seems to have consisted of conversations with people who were present at the major events Herodotus writes of (as well as descendants and those who knew them) - it is important to reflect on how much the stories would have already changed before Herodotus heard them and immortalised them. We must also recognise the fact that many of these sources would have likely been biased
• He is often thought to be overly hostile to the Corinthians and Thebans, who were both enemies of Athens at the time that Herodotus was writing
• Herodotus questions the reliability of his own sources. He once wrote "My business is to record what people say, but I am by no means bound to believe it and that may be taken to apply to this book as a whole"
• There are also many occasions where he reports contradicting versions of the same event.
• Although this is the case, archaeological evidence has proved Herodotus to be at least somewhat accurate in his narrative - and our understanding of what constitutes history has evolved a lot. It is impossible to produce an entirely accurate account of the ancient past, and so all historical reporting must by definition give an imperfect, subjective and limited account of past events