Gale - Science and Its Times Vol 01 (2000 BC to AD 699).pdf

mired by many writers, including Herodotus,
who emphasized the contrast between the governing
systems of Athens and Persia.
Impact
Herodotus is known as the “Father of History”
because he was the first to undertake a written
and unified explanation of an historic event in
prose. Previous histories had been written as
narrative poetry, like the Iliad or other long sagas
of rhyming verse. Herodotus may have intended
his work to appear in several phases, although
almost all this work survives as a unified book
called History. The first five sections of the work,
traditionally called “books,” explore the various
parts of the Persian Empire. The books added
immensely to the ancients’ knowledge of the
world and the lands on the shores of the
Mediterranean. Because Herodotus’s work was
read in public to Greek audiences, he did not
give details about Greece. He did explain the
Greek political situation of 500 B.C. because his
contemporaries would not know about or remember
this period, which was 50 years before.
Herodotus has also been called the “Father
of Anthropology” because he recorded the behavior,
beliefs, customs, and culture of the people
in the Persian Empire. He was astonished by
some of these cultures, repelled by some, but
admired others. One of his descriptive phrases is
familiar in connection with the U.S. postal system.
Praising the system of communication in
Persia, he says of its messengers: “Neither snow
nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these
couriers from the swift completion of their appointed
rounds.” Herodotus often commented
on unusual, astonishing, or remarkable events
and people, often reporting hearsay without
commenting on whether he believed the stories
or not. His works reveal his great enthusiasm for
the diversity of life.
The main focus of History, however, was the
war between Greece and Persia. All Herodotus’s
travels, inquiries, and insights serve to illuminate
the background of this conflict and to explain
the origin of the enmity between the two
countries. Herodotus saw the conflict as a series
of struggles between the independent cities of
Greece in the west and the huge sprawling empire
of Persia ruled by eastern despotic autocrats.
He believed that the gods punished humans
who displayed an excess of overweening
pride, aptly embodied in the Greek word hubris,
and that the Persian defeat clearly illustrated his
belief. However, Herodotus always emphasized
Herodotus reading his historical narrative to an audience.
(Archive Photos. Reproduced with permission.)
the role played by the character of men, not the
interventions of the gods, in his writings. This
rationalistic approach to the writing of history
was completely new.
Greek city-states shared a common language,
culture, religion and history, and in spite
of their long-standing differences, they unified in
480 B.C. to defeat the Persians. Persia was ruled
by Darius II, who conquered and controlled a
collection of varied cultures, with different languages,
customs, and religions. Darius was so
powerful he was able to maintain a huge army
and navy made up of many different peoples
under a single, unified command. Herodotus was
astonished at the size of the Persian forces, but
the numbers he quotes are so fantastic that historians
discount them as gross exaggerations.
Herodotus had a storyteller’s enthusiasm for
a good yarn, as well as a discriminating eye for
detail and a keen sense of geography. He also
knew what was historically important, and thus
understood the significance of the great naval
battle at Salamis, the pivotal engagement in the
Persian defeat. The Greco-Persian wars were a
crucial turning point in the freedom of the
Greek city-states, and the Greek victory ensured
the triumph of democracy and the survival of
the rule of law over Persian despotism.
Exploration
& Discovery
2000 B.C.
to A.D. 699
S C I E N C E A N D I T S T I M E S V O L U M E 1
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