Herodotus lived between 484 BCE and 425 BCE, and helped shape the study of history and geography. The Greek historian and geographer from Halicarnassus, Anatolia (modern-day Turkiye), is known today for writing the Histories – a detailed account of the Greco-Persian Wars. Herodotus was the first writer to perform systematic investigation of historical events, for which the ancient Roman orator Cicero conferred on him the title of “The Father of History”.
The Histories primarily cover the lives of prominent kings and battles such as Marathon, Thermopylae, Artemisium, Salamis, Plataea, and Mycale. The work deviates from the main topics to provide a cultural, ethnographical, geographical, and historiographical background that forms an essential part of the narrative and provides readers with a wellspring of additional information. This is one of the first authentic chronological and historical texts ever written, offering a peek into life and times of Ancient Greece, West Asia, and Egypt.