Herodotus and the Beginning of Historical Inquiry

Herodotus, the father of history, probably lived between c. 484-425 BCE. He was born in Halicarnassus, a Greek colony in Asia Minor. He travelled widely, through the regions of West Asia, including Palestine and Babylon, North Africa, especially Egypt, through several islands in the Mediterranean Sea, and mainland Greece. These travels helped him to personally observe the living conditions of various regions.

The Book Histories

Herodotus wrote the book Histories. The book begins with the opening sentence: “Herodotus of Halicarnassus here displays his inquiries”. Thereby he set the first rule for historians – to inquire. The subject matter of his book is the wars between the Greeks and Persians (Greco-Persian Wars). Herodotus dedicated this book to Clio, the muse of History. Herodotus starts his work by saying that he has two purposes for writing his Histories. The first is “to preserve the memory of Greeks and barbarians in their struggles”. The second is "to give the cause of their fighting one another." By this he set ‘Why’ as the fundamental question of inquiry for every historian. The book Histories is later divided into nine books for further study and analysis.

§  Books I–V describes the background of the Greco-Persian Wars;

§  Books VI-IX contains the history of the wars.

Herodotus’s History has two parts. The first part is a systematic narrative of the war with its preliminaries. The second part gives the story of the growth and organization of the Persian Empire. It also describes its geography, social structure, and history.

Sources and Method of Narration

Herodotus’s wide travels helped him to collect a variety of sources. He used the following sources to write his Histories.

ü  Opsis:  Eye witness accounts

ü  Akoe: Hearsay

ü  Talegomena: Tradition

Herodotus in his book declared “I wrote what I saw and what I heard”. This method is known as ‘autopsy’ meaning seeing for oneself. The majority of his work was eyewitness observations. In his work, he included whatever he heard. He also used other sources of information, derived from tradition, religious centres, chronicles, and interviews. Herodotus is a remarkable storyteller. He used the storytelling method with dialogues and speeches to narrate his history.

Merit as a Historian

Herodotus wrote military history. He narrated the war between Greece and Persia and also traced the causes and results. He traced war strategies, planning, organization, and provided different views on the war. He also traced the establishment of the Persian Empire and its various aspects of life. He wrote, “Circumstances rule men; men do not rule circumstances.”

Demerits of his Work

Herodotus was blamed for subjectivity and mythical presentation. In narrating the events of the war, he favoured the Greeks against the Persians. Occasionally, he mixed folk traditions with his narrations. He narrated fanciful stories about the war. He accepted whatever he heard as truth without any kind of analysis. He was not bothered about the chronology of events.

Conclusion

Herodotus inaugurated historical tradition and influenced the later historians of his period. He pioneered historical inquiry and traced the causes. Accepting his merit as a historian, Cicero called him the “Father of History”.