HERODOTUS

Life: born about 490-480 B.C. in Halicarnassus, the city ruled by the naval comander, Artemisia. He was exiled in 460 B.C. and fled to Samos. From there, he went on extensive travels in Asia, almost to Susa, the Persian capital, and to Egypt as far as the Upper regions of the Nile. In 445 B.C. he visited Athens where he gave public readings from The Persians Wars on which he was working. He was a friend of Pericles and Sophocles who composed a poem in his honor.

Writings about the Persians: The Persian Wars, the principal source for information about the Ionian Revolt , the First and Second Persian Wars. It is the first work of true history in Greek letters. This work is filled with ethnographical information about not only the Persians and Greeks of the late sixth and early fifth centuries B.C., but also the contemporary Egyptians, Scythians and other people of the Persian empire.