Herodotus (c. 490-425 BC) from Halicarnassus has been called the 'Father of History' as he was one of the first to conduct systematic historical research. Intrigued by the causes that led to the Persian Wars, events which shaped 5th century BC Greece, he aimed to present an accurate account of the achievements of both Greeks and non-Greeks (called Barbarians by the Greeks), and their confrontations.
His approach was new in that he did not base his work on mythology, but on interviews and written records. His inquiries were called 'histories' in Greek, and this became the title of his book, from which this extract is taken.
