Herodotus

Herodotus was a Greek <a href="/facts/Historian/5DBH5eCb">historian</a> and <a href="/facts/Geographer/lQAzvXY0">geographer</a> from the <a href="/facts/List_of_ancient_Greek_cities/M0Yraaqq">Greek city</a> of <a href="/facts/Halicarnassus/ytVIfKqX">Halicarnassus</a> (now <a href="/facts/Bodrum/V4FmDb1l">Bodrum</a>, Turkey), under Persian control in the 5th century BC, and a later citizen of <a href="/facts/Thurii/wByRJTNl">Thurii</a> in modern <a href="/facts/Calabria/n9602l3b">Calabria</a>, Italy. He wrote the <a href="/facts/Histories_(Herodotus)/bdAH6VGu">Histories</a>, a detailed account of the <a href="/facts/Greco-Persian_Wars/avlfmxyh">Greco-Persian Wars</a> among other subjects such as the rise of the <a href="/facts/Achaemenid_dynasty/tuJQqCHM">Achaemenid dynasty</a> of <a href="/facts/Cyrus_the_Great/0gB7KwSA">Cyrus</a>. He has been described as "<a href="/facts/The_Father_of_History/aJ8aBWcI">The Father of History</a>", a title conferred on him by the <a href="/facts/Ancient_Roman/cGqIuxPd">ancient Roman</a> orator <a href="/facts/Cicero/A37U7jaN">Cicero</a>, and the "Father of Lies" by others.
The Histories primarily cover the lives of prominent kings and famous battles such as <a href="/facts/Battle_of_Marathon/mjCJpGoG">Marathon</a>, <a href="/facts/Battle_of_Thermopylae/XE83betI">Thermopylae</a>, <a href="/facts/Battle_of_Artemisium/Vu0IT1dI">Artemisium</a>, <a href="/facts/Battle_of_Salamis/ug3o6zQy">Salamis</a>, <a href="/facts/Battle_of_Plataea/hPNRyzL2">Plataea</a>, and <a href="/facts/Battle_of_Mycale/zn3w1BVQ">Mycale</a>. His work deviates from the main topics to provide a cultural, <a href="/facts/Ethnographical/qxJRLSwJ">ethnographical</a>, <a href="/facts/Geographical/TRd1Toyo">geographical</a>, and <a href="/facts/Historiographical/NVMMC3FP">historiographical</a> background that forms an essential part of the narrative and provides readers with a wellspring of additional information. 
Herodotus was criticized in his times for his inclusion of "legends and fanciful accounts" in his work. The contemporaneous historian <a href="/facts/Thucydides/oec8VKJz">Thucydides</a> who covered the infamous <a href="/facts/Peloponnesian_War/Dgbc4cCE">Peloponnesian War</a> in his <a href="/facts/History_of_the_Peloponnesian_War/fRgCdMjh">History of the Peloponnesian War</a> would separately accuse Herodotus of making up stories for entertainment. Herodotus retorted that he reported what he could see and what he was told. A sizable portion of the Histories has since been confirmed by modern <a href="/facts/Historian/5DBH5eCb">historians</a> and <a href="/facts/Archaeologists/K3Q5P38R">archaeologists</a>.

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Herodotus