The Histories

by Herodotus Book 22 in the Penguin Classics: Ancient World series.

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Herodotus’s Histories is a major source for the Greco-Persian Wars and the wider world that led to them. It covers Persian, Lydian, Egyptian, Scythian and Greek settings before moving into the Ionian Revolt, Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis and Plataea. The work is valuable for readers wanting narrative detail about places, customs, rulers, battle traditions and the way Greeks later explained the Persian invasions.

Herodotus does more than narrate campaigns. He collects speeches, origin stories, geographical descriptions and reports of customs, often preserving several explanations before stating which he finds most convincing. That mixture makes the work indispensable but also requires critical reading, since observation, oral tradition and storytelling sit beside one another throughout the text.

Historical Periods

Classical Greece480–323 BCE Ionian Revolt499–493 BCE Battle of Marathon490 BCE Battle of Thermopylae480 BCE Naval Battle of Salamis480 BCE Battle of Plataea479 BCE Ancient Egyptc. 3100–30 BCE Achaemenid Persian Empire550–330 BCE Classical Historiography500 BCE–250 CE