The History of Herodotus

The History of Herodotus is a book by Herodotus, first published c. 440 BCE. Written in the Ionic Greek of the fifth century BCE, the work records wide-ranging enquiries into the origins, peoples and conflicts of the Greek world and its neighbours.

Divided into nine books named after the Muses, it traces the growth of the Persian empire, starting with Croesus of Lydia, though Cyrus and Xerxes. It remains prized as the founding text of Western historiography and is read today by students of ancient history, the Persian Wars, classical Greece, geography and cultural anthropology for its mix of eyewitness reporting, travel-account material and narrative inquiry.

This 1890 English translation by George Campbell Macaulay follows the scholarly Greek text traditions of his day and has been used widely in classrooms and online editions; readers will find an accessible Victorian-era English style that preserves the narrative energy of the original while offering useful clarity for modern readers.