Page 82 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol III

herodotus 901

Herodotus on the Defeat of
the Persians

In the extract below, Herodotus describes how the Greeks. In the final five books he then narrated in detail
Athenians charged the Persians at Marathon, 490 the conflict between the Greeks and Persians from the
BCE. Ionian Revolt to the failure of the Persian king Xerxes’
great invasion of Greece in 480–479 BCE. Uniting his
So when the army was set in array, and the sac-
account was the idea that the conflict represented a
rifices were favourable, instantly the Athenians,
struggle between Europe and Asia and freedom and
so soon as they were let go, charged the barbar-
slavery as represented by the leading peoples of each con-
ians at a run. Now the distance between the two
tinent: the Greeks and the Persians.
armies was little short of a mile. The Persians,
Herodotus’s work immediately became the standard
therefore, when they saw the Greeks coming on
Greek account of the Persian Wars.Thucydides and other
at speed, made ready to receive them, although it
Greek historians continued his work, but none tried to
seemed to them that the Athenians were bereft of
redo it. Already in antiquity, however, Herodotus’s sta-
their senses, and bent upon their own destruc-
tus as a historian was controversial, as evidenced by the
tion; for they saw a mere handful of men coming
tendency to refer to him not only as the “Father of His-
on at a run without either horsemen or archers.
tory” but also as the “Father of Lies” because of the
Such was the opinion of the barbarians; but the
numerous fantastic stories in his work. The rehabilita-
Athenians in close array fell upon them, and
tion of Herodotus’s reputation as a historian began dur-
fought in a manner worthy of being recorded.
ing the Age of Discovery with the recognition of
They were the first of the Greeks, so far as I
numerous parallels between his work and European
know, who introduced the custom of charging
explorers’ accounts of the Americas. Further evidence of
the enemy at a run, and they were likewise the
his reliability was provided by archaeological discover-
first who dared to look upon the Median garb,
ies confirming the accuracy of many of his descriptions
and to face men clad in that fashion. Until this
of non-Greek monuments and burial practices. Finally,
time the very name of the Medes had been a ter-
recent scholarship has demonstrated close parallels
ror to the Greeks to hear.
between Herodotus’s methods as described in the His-
Source: Rawlinson, G. (1860). The history of Herodotus (Book 6, pp. 408ff). New
York: D. Appleton & Co. tories and traditional oral historians in Africa and else-
where, thereby vindicating his claim that his work was
primarily based on two sources: his personal observa-
Herodotus is known to have written only one book: tions and critical evaluation of what people told him
the Histories. When it was published in the 420s BCE,it during his travels.
was probably one of the longest, if not the longest, and Herodotus’s position as the founder of the Greek his-
most complex prose works that had been written in toriographic tradition is secure, as is his contribution to
Greek to that time. Herodotus stated his purpose in the world history. That contribution was threefold. He was
first sentence of the Histories: to preserve the memory of the first to use the criterion of reliable evidence to dis-
the great deeds of the Greeks and barbarians and to tinguish historical time. He also introduced the idea of
explain the reason they fought with each other. the succession of empires that provided the basic frame-
Herodotus achieved his purpose by tracing in the first work for European world histories until the nineteenth
four books of the Histories the rise of the Persian Empire century CE. Most important, however, he recognized that
from its foundation in the mid-sixth century BCE to the all peoples have their own independent histories and
outbreak of the Ionian Revolt in 499 BCE. Accounts of established the principle that historians should rely on
the history and culture of the various peoples conquered native sources to write the history of any people.
by the Persians interspersed throughout the narrative Although Herodotus’s practice was not always equal
provided a panoramic view of the world known to the to his principles, and although his most important