born 484?, Helicarnassus, Asia Minor
died 430/420 BC
Greek historian.
He resided in Athens and then in Thurii in southern Italy. His travels covered a large part of the Persian empire. He is the author of the first great narrative history produced in the ancient world, the History of the Persian Wars . It is a unified artistic masterpiece, with many illuminating digressions and anecdotes skillfully worked into the narrative. Despite many inaccuracies, it remains the leading source of original information about Greece between 550 and 479 BC, as well as that of much of western Asia and Egypt.