It is estimated that Herodotus lived between 480 and 429 B.C. He was born in a town called Halicarnassus, the modern port city of Bodrum in southwestern Turkey. His parents’ names were Lyxes and Dryio (or Rhoio), and they were one of the wealthy and noble families of their town. As with most ancient writers, we have few information about Herodotus’ life.
It is quite certain that Herodotus spent the early part of his life in his homeland Asia Minor1. Although we lack a detailed account of Herodotus’s education, he most likely followed the course common in Grece in later times—attended the grammar-school where he learnt to read and write, frequented the palaestra where he went through the exercises, and received instruction from the professional harper or flute-player, who taught him the basics of music. He then became thoroughly accomplished in the knowledge of literature, familiarized himself with the philosophical systems of his time, and attained a mastery of rhetorical skills. He was particularly highly skilled in poetry and had an intimate acquaintance with the classic writings of Homer, which was the most important requisite of scholarship in ancient Grece.
Around 425 B.C, Herodotus was forced to flee from his home town to the Greek island called Samos. This was because of the tyranny of the ruler of his town, who had put his uncle to death. While in Samos, he began writing his histories. Afterwards, he returned and took the lead in an insurrection whereby Halicarnassus obtained her freedom.
Herodotus continued to reside at his birthplace for some time, and took long journeys for the purpose of historical and geographical research. Around 447 B.C, at the age of 37, having brought his book to a certain degree of completeness, and finding himself disliked by his townspeople (most likely out of jealousy), he left his home country and moved to Athens. A year after, in 446 B.C, a decree passed by Athenian assembly, whereby a reward was assigned to Herodotus on account of his great historical work, which he had read publicly to the Athenians.
However, despite the love that Herodotus had for Athens, he was destined to leave it. First, at Athens he was excluded from citizenship.2 And to the Greek not bent on money-making or absorbed in philosophy, to be without political rights, to have no share in what formed the daily life and occupied the constant thoughts of all around him, was unbearable. To the Greek, Aristotle’s famous saying, “Man is not a man unless he is a citizen,” held true. Second, Athens, like every capital, was an expensive place to live in; and the wealth which he had back home could scarcely provide him with a living there. The acceptance by Herodotus of a sum of money from the Athenian people implies that his means were by then low. They may have been exhausted by the cost of his long journeys, or have suffered from his leaving Halicarnassus. So he gladly embraced the offer which Athens was giving to adventurers from all parts of Greece, whereby he would acquire at her hands a parcel of land which would place him above want, and a new right of citizenship. Accordingly, around 443 B.C, at the age of 40, Herodotus joined the colonists whom Pericles3 was sending out to Italy, and became one of the first settlers at Thurium (a settlement in southern Italy)4.
Herodotus travelled extensively in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey), Greece, Macedon, the Greek islands, Thrace (southeast Europe), Persia (modern-day Iran), and Palestine (modern-day Israel and Palestinian territories). He also visited Babylon (the famous ancient city in what is now Iraq), Syria, Egypt, Scythia (today corresponds to Southern Russia and Ukraine), Colchis (western part of modern-day Georgia), Cyrene (modern-day Shahhat in Libya), and Magna Graecia (southern Italy). Herodotus did not just spend some time in the places he visited, but examined them carefully, and studied their scenery, their towns and cities, their various wonders, their temples and other buildings, and the manners and customs of their inhabitants. The fullness and minuteness of his information is even more remarkable than its wide range. Always and everywhere, Herodotus collected the best data that was accessible to him, and it is one of his great merits as a historian that he did not receive it uncritically.
Reference Notes
- Asia Minor is also known as Anatolia. Today it is called Turkey. From the conquest of Alexander the Great (4th century B.C) to the 14th century A.D, the area was mostly Greek. ↩︎
- In ancient Grece, citizenship was not linked to the nation. Instead it was connected to the city to which one belonged. Ancient Greeks did not develop the notion of a common national citizenship, which was one of the reasons that led to the collapse of the Greek nation. ↩︎
- Pericles (495-429 B.C) was an Athenian statesman and strategist, largely responsible for the full development, in the later 5th century B.C of both the Athenian democracy and the Athenian empire, making Athens the political and cultural focus of Greece. ↩︎
- Thurium was located near what is now the Sibari neighborhood in the municipality of Cossano, in the Province of Cosenza, in Calabria, southern Italy. ↩︎
Sources
Rawlinson, George (1862) History of Herodotus: a new English version. Chapter 1 – On the Life and Writings of Herodotus. Volume I. 2nd edition. John Murray: London.
Blakeney, Edward H. (1910) Introduction. In The History of Herodotus. Translated by George Rawlinson. Volume I. Edited by Edward H. Blakeney. London : J. M. Dent.
Godley, Alfred Denis (1920) General Introduction. In Herodotus. Volume I. Heinemann: London.