Literature review: Herodotus - Research Paper Example

In book seven of The Histories he mentioned the execution of two Spartans in Athens, and according to another source book The history of the Peloponnesian War it happened in the winter season of 430-429 BC, meaning Herodotus was still alive and writing by the year of 429 BC. Nowhere in the book that he claimed to have witnessed the great Persian War that occurred sometimes in 480-479 BC, even he was able to described it in his writings. It is also recorded that in the summer of 429 BC many Athenians were killed by the plague, and it was speculated that Herodotus was one of the victims of this disease.

Further proof that he must have died before 413 BC, is that he mentioned in his book nine of the history book he wrote, of a certain village in the neighborhood of Athens, which is Decelea, that was never plundered by the Spartans which as other record shows happened in 413 BC. So, while assuming that he probably died between 429 and 413 BC, presumably, he was born between 500 and 470 BC. Obviously, Herodotus was well-educated, meaning he must have been from a rich family, or most likely, a member of the old aristocracy.

From the details on how he described places in the book he wrote, like Babylon, it appeared that he was very familiar. Also, he claims in his writings that he had been to some places, that proves that he was a traveller. We may also ponder that he was a brave fighter as a heavy armored infantryman from the way he described the battles in the book he wrote from the soldier’s perspective and sometimes even confused. The truth is, he was a soldier, not a general (Lendering part 2). Evidently, he was so interested with the roots of war that he was able to write a book of nine series that narrated great wars that happened in human history.

His curiosity of wars can be sensed from his words in the prologue, as he stated that he publishes the results of his inquiries for two reasons, namely: “to preserve the memory of the past and to show how the two races came into conflict”(part4, para.5). So, he wrote about the Greek saga, the cause of war between East and West, between the Persian and the Phoenician, and the rest, while emphasizing the product of his curiosity behind wars which is Imperialism (Lendering part 4). In his book The Histories, book 4, he gave a vivid idea of the nature and development of the Persian Wars as it describes how the Persian Empire led by Darius used the military strength basically structured to invade foreign territories.

In his introductory words, he marks that Darius campaign against Scythia was to exact vengeance, giving us the idea how Scythia had an impact on the historical events that lead to the Persian Wars. As Herodotus explained that Scythian warriors once defeated Median soldiers that they met in the field (3). According to D. Braund, from the book Ancient Greeks west and east, Herodotus considered that the defeat that Scythians inflicted upon the mighty Persian Darius was due to their mobility and strength brought about by being nomads.

Nomads or Nomadism was the lifestyle of the Scythians, as Herodotus described that their fortified cities have no walls nor particular point and their nomadic life was a means of austerity rather than a condition of life (522). Herodotus describes Scythians in his book as the lords of the whole Upper Asia (3). Being nomads, they left their wives in their homeland for quite a long time that their wives were able to have sexual relations with their slaves and begot children (4).