Greek historian father of history
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Early Life
Herodotus was born in about 485 B.C. in the Greek city of Halicarnassus, a lively commercial center on the southwestern coast of Asia Minor. He came from a wealthy and cosmopolitan Greek-Carian merchant family.
(The Carians, of Minoan descent, had arrived in that part of Asia Minor before the Greeks had.)
In the middle of the 6th century B.C., Halicarnassus became a satrapy, or province, of the Persian Empire and was ruled by the tyrant Lygdamis.
Herodotus’ family opposed Lygdamis’ rule and was sent into exile on the island of Samos.
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When he was a young man, Herodotus returned briefly to Halicarnassus to take part in an abortive anti-Persian rebellion.
Greek historian father of history
After that, however, the writer never returned to his home city again.
Did you know? In 443 B.C., Herodotus joined a group of Athenians who set out to colonize a city, Thurii, in southern Italy. He died there in around 425 B.C.
Origins of ‘The Histories’
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