The Persians in Thrace. The tyrant of Miletus, Aristagoras, incites the Ionian cities against the Persians. Athens and Eretria support the revolution. Reference to the history of Athens and Sparta.

Herodotus, a scion of a wealthy family from Halicarnassus, was probably born around 484 BC. Verified details about his life include that he spent some time of his youth in Samos, that he traveled to Greece, Scythia, Pontus, and the East, and that he participated in the colonization of Thurii, the city where he died around 430 BC.

Herodotus's writing, a work for which he was called the 'Father of History,' was divided by Alexandrian scholars into nine books (each titled with the name of a Muse) based on their content. The historian begins his account with the height of the Persian Empire, continues with the history and anthropology of Egypt, the conquest of that country by the Persians, the relations of the latter with the Western world, and culminates his work with the Persian Wars.

Drawing information from oral tradition, written sources, and archaeology, also utilizing mythological data, Herodotus composes his History in the Ionic dialect, which is characterized by sincerity, objectivity, and an unbiased approach to individuals, peoples, and events.