Barnes, Harry Elmer. 1962. A History of Historical Writing.

New York :
Dover Publication, Inc.

The first comprehensive and systematic historical work composed by a Greek author was the
account of Greco-Asiatic relations from the reign of Croesus of Lydia (560-546 b.c.) to the defeat
of the Persian invaders of Greece in 478 b.c. by Herodotus. The Persian wars had awakened the
interest of the Greeks in the character of the civilizations of the Near Orient. Hence, any writer
who linked up a description of oriental cultures with the absorbing patriotic theme of the Greeks’
rebuff of the Persians was bound to have many and enthusiastic readers. The opportunity was
seized by Herodotus of Halicarnassus (ca. 484-425 b.c.). He was interested not only in civilized
peoples but in the uncivilized as well. Hence, he is correctly regarded as not only the father of
history but also as the father of anthropology. Of the general character and import of his work
Maurice Croiset has written “skip bae yo”.
The central theme of the History of Herodotus was the Persian wars, especially the destruction
of the forces of Xerxes by the Greeks. But the background which he sought for his work provided
even more important and interesting material than his specific history of the Persian wars. In
deed, Herodotus was at his worst as a reporter of military history, where he showed much
carelessness and little capacity for checking up on details. In one sense, however, his work here
was both unusual and commendable. He did not allow patriotic bias to overcome his judgment
and sense of fairness. He was so just to the Persians and so willing to concede their valor that he
was bitterly criticized on this point by his patriotic Greek readers.
To Herodotus the Persian wars represented the clash of two important and distinct types of
civilization—the Hellenic and the oriental. Hence, he “backed off” to analyze these conflicting
cultures. This exercise m historical perspective led to the very entertaining and illuminating
descriptions which he gave of the peoples of the western Mediterranean and Asiatic world m the
sixth and fifth centuries b.c. This material was a sort of mixture of cultural history and descriptive
sociology. He ranged from the climates of various areas to the regimen of everyday life among
the peoples he dealt with. And he described the diverse peoples with unusual freedom from race
prejudice. For a long time regarded as the victim of a boundless credulity, contemporary
archeological research has confirmed not a few of his vivid tales and descriptive flights. He
differentiated with remarkable success for his age between the popular tales and what he himself
saw add believed. By his broad interests, Herodotus really qualified as a cultural historian, and it
is worth noung that the first comprehensive historical work ever composed was at the same time
a history of civilization.
In his specific treatment of the Persian wars Herodotus was somewhat less happy and successful,
though perhaps no less interesting. Professor Shotwell has described him as “the Homer of the
Persian wars,” and the comparison is not without much merit and cogency. This part of his work
was a prose epic. Herodotus was an admirer of Athenian “democracy.” Though praising Persian
bravery, he eulogized Athens and its triumph over the autocratic Persian imperialism with all the
fervor of a Bancroft describing the winning of American independence from the British Empire.
But he had none of that sohcitude for accuracy and precision in his reporting of military facts
which characterized his distinguished successor, Thucydides. Nor did he free himself fully from
deference to the doctrine of the intervention of the gods in human affairs. The theory of
supernatural causation appeared not infrequently in his work.
But the fame of Herodotus will endure as the first constructive artist in the field of historical
writing, as the author of the earliest comprehensive historical work, as the first writer to imply
that the task of the historian is to reconstruct the whole past life of man, and as one of the most
absorbing story-tellers in the entire course of historical writing. His prestige and importance have
been enhanced m our generation as a result of the growing popularity of the history of culture
and the gradual eclipse of the long-popular episodical military and political type of history which
prevailed from Thucydides until the twentieth century of our era.