It was Herodotus's good fortune to come from Asia Minor, a land rich with a mixture of cultures. In the course of his career, he would travel throughout most of the known world. This heightened exposure—he later said that he interviewed people from thirty foreign nations in writing his History—gave great depth to his writing.
Tacitus
Tacitus (TAS-I-tus; c. a. d. 56-120) ranks perhaps as high among Roman historians as Herodotus does among Greeks; but his methods were not always as careful as those of Herodotus. He is admired more as a commentator on morals than as a recorder of historical facts.
His early life is a mystery. What little historians do know about him comes from his friend Pliny the Younger (PLI-nee). Tacitus's later involvement in public life makes it easier to know about his career from about the age of twenty. It also helps to illustrate the Roman system of civil service, which gave employment to many young men of noble families.
Tacitus most likely started out in his late teens at some minor post, at which he showed his abilities. Then, as was the custom, he served a term as an officer in the military. A young man could then choose either to stay in the army or to return home for a career in civil service. The choice of civil service usually involved an early marriage, since this helped career advancement. Thus in a. d. 77, Tacitus returned to Rome and married the daughter of Agricola (uh-GRIK-uh-luh; a. d. 40-93), a noted general.
In A. D. 82, when he was about twenty-six years old, Tacitus took a job as a quaestor (KWES-tur), a post concerned chiefly with financial administration. From there he probably went on to the position of aedile (EE-dile), a type of magistrate responsible for overseeing all manner of details involving life in Rome, from organizing public games to regulating traffic to checking weights and measures. Having succeeded at that job, he was elected to the highly prestigious position of praetor (PREE-tur)—something like a
Supposedly Herodotus took part in a revolt at Halicarnassus. For that involvement he was exiled to the isle of Samos (SAH-mohs) off the west coast of Asia Minor when he was thirty-two years old, in about 452 b. c. From there he went on to Athens, where he lived for some time during the Age of Pericles (see entry). In 443 b. c., when he was about forty-one, he traveled to Thurii (thoor-ee-EYE) in southern Italy, where Pericles had recently founded an Athenian colony.
Over the course of the next two decades, as he wrote the book that would make him famous, Herodotus traveled far and wide. His research took him to Phoenicia and into Egypt
District attorney—in a. d. 88. A year later, in a move typical of a Roman civil servant on his way up the career ladder, he went for another tour of military duty somewhere in the provinces.
Around the time Tacitus returned to Rome, in a. d. 93, Agricola died. The empire had come under the control of the cruel, mentally imbalanced emperor Domitian (doh-MISH-un; ruled a. d. 81-96), who refused Tacitus permission to write a biography of his enemy, Agricola. The next three years were fearful ones, as Domitian conducted a reign of terror, killing many of Tacitus's friends. Meanwhile Tacitus laid low, writing his Agricola in secret. He published it in a. d. 96, the year Domitian was assassinated.
Tacitus published his next work, Germania, in a. d. 98. This work presented
One of the few contemporary accounts of the Germans and the Britons. With their love of freedom over pleasure, these "barbarians" were the opposite of the Romans. They clearly impressed Tacitus, who longed for a return to the simple ways of early Rome. He would put that longing into his two other historical works, Histories (c. a. d. 109) and Annals (c. a. d. 116).
The last two books formed a history of the empire from the death of Augustus in a. d. 14 through the assassination of Domitian. As historical works they are unreliable because Tacitus allowed his own foregone conclusions— rather than the evidence—guide his narrative. They are nonetheless impressive for their portrayals of various characters and for their passionate criticism of the Romans' moral decline.
As far south as Elephantine (el-uh-fan-TINE), near modern-day Aswan. While there, he wrote extensively on the Pyramids. Although he came up with some bizarre ideas about how they were built, he also offered a detailed firsthand look at great structures already more than 2,000 years old at that time.
Later he traveled westward, to Cyrene (sie-REEN) in what is now Libya; then he ventured east, to inspect the ruins of Babylon. There he wrote extensively about what he saw and marveled at what had been. He traveled to Persia, home of the Greeks' recent foes, and around the Black Sea in what is now Russia and other former Soviet republics. As he went, he interviewed people, made notes, and collected material for his History.
The History
The History, which Herodotus apparently published in stages between 430 and 424 b. c., comprised a record of the world from its origins (or at least, what the Greeks understood of its origins, which was myth rather than history or science) to the present day. What made Herodotus “the father of history” was his method. He did not simply record lists of kings and names, as others before him had done. Nor did he, at least in reporting on relatively recent events, rely on myths or superstitions to guide his narrative. Instead, he conducted tireless research and sifted through what he learned to find the truth.
Curiously, he did relate a great number of outlandish stories he had heard in his travels. He explained these by writing, “I must tell what is said, but I am not bound to believe it, and this comment of mine holds [true] about my whole History.” Though clearly trained in the Athenian traditions of logic and philosophical inquiry, he was also wise enough to understand that logic does not explain everything. In particular, he realized that while myths, rumors, and superstitions are not “true,” they often contain some grain of truth about the human condition.
Humanity, in fact, was really the subject of The History. Though many later historians operated under the belief that history is simply a matter of kings and military leaders, Herodotus gave at least as much attention to “ordinary people.” On the one hand, his book is a narrative of events leading up to the Persian Wars, from the destruction of croesus by the Persians to the defeat of Xerxes (see entry) at Salamis; on the other hand, The History is much more than that.
Herodotus celebrated the diversity and varied splendor of humankind in the pages of his History. In his view, all men and women were subject to the forces controlling destiny. It was not his place to judge any group of people whose customs might differ from those of his own nation. This was a highly progressive viewpoint for someone in the 400s b. c.
World History
