The second Persian war

Herodotus (c. 484–425 BC) was born in Halicarnassus, today's Bodrum in Turkey, and travelled widely in Egypt, Babylon, the Black Sea and Greece, asking questions everywhere he went. His Histories tell the story of the wars between the Greeks and the Persian Empire, and of the peoples involved, their customs, their gods and their legends.

Cicero called him the Father of History, and he was the first to set out to investigate the causes of events rather than simply record them. His book on Egypt, which the library also holds on its own as An Account of Egypt, is full of wonders, some true and some not, and remains a delight to read.