This book consists of 22 papers originally presented during the conference on ancient historical writing held in May 2007 in Wrocław, Poland. The authors are classical historians and philologists from academic institutions in Austria, Finland, France, Germany, Israel, Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States. The collection responds to a growing interest among classical scholars in historiography and such related genres as ethnography and biography. The focus of the volume is, on the one hand, on the ancient historians’ methods of approaching the external world, especially a non-Greek (or non-Roman) world, and, on the other, on the political dimension of historical writing, especially of Roman imperial historiography. There are also papers devoted to pointing and defining links between historiography and other literary genres such as epic or novel. Much attention is given to classical Greek historiography (Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon), but other authors and periods are also discussed. The book is addressed to classical scholars, historians of historiography and anyone interested in ancient world. With a view to a non-specialist reader, all Greek and most Latin quotations are translated.

Herodotus wrote the first history book in the world. That is why he is sometimes called the 'Father of History'. He lived 2,500 years ago in the fifth century BC and travelled the Ancient or Classical World. King Leonidas of Sparta and the Battle of Thermopylae, made famous by the blockbuster movie 300, began with Herodotus' historical story.

The ancient Greek historian Herodotus traveled the world, collecting stories wherever he went. These tales will amuse and edify readers of all ages, while summoning up a lost world of kings and tyrants, oracles and prophecies, wily heroes, tragic fates, and the rise and fall of empires.

Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who lived in the fifth century BC (c.484 - 425 BC). He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a well-constructed and vivid narrative. The Histories-his masterpiece and the only work he is known to have produced-is a record of his "inquiry", being an investigation of the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars and including a wealth of geographical and ethnographical information. The Histories, were divided into nine books, named after the nine Muses: the "Muse of History", Clio, representing the first book, then Euterpe, Thaleia, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Erato, Polymnia, Ourania and Calliope for books 2 to 9, respectively.

Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who lived in the fifth century BC (c.484 - 425 BC). He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a well-constructed and vivid narrative. The Histories-his masterpiece and the only work he is known to have produced-is a record of his "inquiry", being an investigation of the origins of the Greco-Persian Wars and including a wealth of geographical and ethnographical information. The Histories, were divided into nine books, named after the nine Muses: the "Muse of History", Clio, representing the first book, then Euterpe, Thaleia, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Erato, Polymnia, Ourania and Calliope for books 2 to 9, respectively.

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