HERODOTUS, Greek historian, called the (( father of history": b. at Halicarnassus in Asia Minor, about 484 B.C. Before writing his his tory he traveled extensively, visiting the shores of the Hellespont and the Euxine, Scythia, Syria, Palestine, Babylon and Ecubatana, Egypt as far as Elephantine and other parts of north ern Africa, everywhere investigating the man ners, customs and religion of the people, the history of the country, productions of the soil, etc. On returning home he found that Lygda mis had usurped the supreme authority in Hali carnassus and put to death the noblest citizens and Herodotus was forced to seek an asylum in the island of Samos. Having formed a conspir acy with several exiles he returned to Halicar nassus and drove out the usurper, but the nobles who had acted with him immediately formed an aristocracy more oppressive than the govern ment of the banished tyrant, and Herodotus withdrew to the recently founded colony of Thurii, in Italy, where he seems to have spent most of his remaining life. Here, at an advanced age, we are told by Pliny, he wrote his immortal work, a statement strengthened by the fact that events are noticed in the body of the book which occurred so late as 409 a.c., while its abrupt ending proves almost beyond question that he was prevented by death from completing it. The history is divided into nine books, each bearing the name of a Muse, and is written in the Ionic dialect. The object of the historian is to narrate the conflict between the Greeks and Persians, and he traces the enmity of the two races back to mythical times. Pass ing rapidly over the mythical period he comes to Crcesus, king of Lydia, of whom and of his kingdom he gives a comparatively full history.
The conquest of Lydia by Cyrus induces him to relate the rise of the Persian monarchy and the subjugation of Asia Minor and Babylon. The history of Cambyses and his Egyptian expedi tion leads him to introduce the valuable details of the history, geography and manners and cus toms of Egypt, occupying the second book. The Scythian expedition of Darius causes the his torian to treat of the Scythians and the north of Europe; and the subsequent extension of the Persian kingdom affords him opportunity for an account of Cyrene and Libya. In the mean time the revolt of the Ionians breaks out, which eventually brings on the conflict between Greece and Persia. An account of this outbreak and of the rise of Athens after the expulsion of the Pisistratidm is followed by what properly con stitutes the principal part of the work, and the history of the Persian War now runs on in an uninterrupted stream until the taking of Sestos. There are English translations of his history by G. C. Macaulay (1890); Beloe, Cary, Macan and Rawlinson, the last with important notes and dissertations. The 'Life of Homer,' at tributed to Herodotus, and printed at the end of several editions of his works, is now uni versally believed to be a production of a later date. The best editions of the history of He rodotus are by Wesseling (1763); Schweighauser (1806); Bahr (1855-61); Stein (1871) •, and a notable commentary by How and Wells was published in 1912.