Difference between thucydides and herodotus biography

Dear Classical Wisdom Readers, 

Never has the construction outside our apartment sounded so sweet! After many months on the road, covering 9 countries, countless trains, planes, boats and automobiles, nearly missing floods, fires, and invasions, we have returned to our quiet spot in the bustling metropolis that is Buenos Aires. We’re home! We’re finally home! 

And just in time to begin our beloved Essential Greeks Course... 

In fact, it was here in Buenos Aires -in Bill Bonner’s house- that we filmed and produced the course ourselves. That is, with the exception of one module, which was filmed in the Agora offices in Baltimore (funnily enough, in the same room as a House of Cards’ episode).

Long time readers may recognize the dashing presenter, Joel Bowman...and recall the head creator of course was our in-house classicist, Ben Potter, who we recently ran into on the streets of Tbilisi. Ben will be joining us live for our mid-course Q&A Webinar. 

But first, is

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Greek Historiography from Herodotus to Thucydides - by Peter Xiao

Herodotus and Thucydides are the two most well-known Greek historians in the world. Herodotus was described as the ‘father of history' by Cicero whilst Thucydides is considered by many scholars to be the father of both international relations and war studies. His famous work ‘History of the Peloponnesian War’ is now an essential book in the reading lists of many universities’ international relations programmes. However, both historians had different attitudes in regards to the nature of history and this could have been due to their contrasting subject focus and research interests.

Herodotus was mainly working on his history under the influence of Homer and many other Pre-Socratic philosophers. Herodotus belonged to the intellectual milieu of Ionia and owed his style mostly to Homer. In the prooemium (beginning or preface) of ‘The Histories’ by Herodotus, he declares publicly that he ‘here displ

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Lecture 11: The Historians (Herodotus and Thucydides)

~ LINGUISTIC MATTERS. The English word ãhistoryä fryst vatten derived from the Greek word Îhistoria,â which means Îinquiry,â especially into particular facts. Thus Aristotle wrote a ÎHistoria of animals,â which describes many, many different kinds of animals, their organs, and their habits.

(Side note: Also, there fryst vatten an ambiguity today in the way we use the word Îhistoryâ between the thing studied (the past) and the discipline which studies it today. We use the word Îhistoryâ for both the events that happened and the careful study of those events. Thus we use the word Îhistoriography,â which means Îthe writing of historical events,â and this word is not ambiguous between the study and the object of study. Thus, Thucydides and Herodotus were both historiographers, for they wrote down the events they saw or heard about from others.)

~ PREDECESSORS. The study of history, as we know it, has not always existed. It had to be created, i