Histories

The book by Herodotus which was the first attempt to factually record historical events from eyewitness or secondhand information.

Called The Histories or simply Histories, the name literally means Research or Inquiry; assumed to have been written in the mid-fifth century BCE; Histories is divided into nine books but it is almost certain that such divisions were done long after Herodotus’ death.

Histories deals primarily with the Persian invasion of Greece in 480 BCE but has many observations and stories garnered from Herodotus’ travels; some of his accounts are laughably inaccurate but, all in all, Histories is a priceless glimpse into the daily lives of the ancient Greeks.

There are numerous translations of Histories and I highly recommend reading this important work; this book can be found at most libraries or can be purchased through the Book Shop on this site which is linked to Amazon.com; I recommend The Histories as translated by David Grene, ISBN 0226327728 (paperback) or the Penguin Classics version revised by A. R. Burn, ISBN 0140440348.