Expert: Maria - 9/19/2004

Question
why was it unusual to be a historian in about 480 - 425 BC?  

Answer
Hello Camilla (beautiful Etruscan/Roman name),

The Greek historian Herodotus, who lived from c.480 to c.425 BC, was certainly  the world's first historian, as the logographers, i.e. those Greek chroniclers who before him wrote history,not only are unknown, but they didn't even tell us historical truth. They in fact wrote chiefly gossip, legends and  seldom historical events, though in a condensed manner with short simple sentences.

As for your question, i.e. “why was it unusual to be a historian in about 480 - 425 BC?”,I can mention some points which can explain it:

1-At the time of Herodotus, it was unusual to be a historian as there was little opportunity  of travelling and then knowing what happened outside one's own city walls, which on the contrary Herodotus could do when he left his home town Halicarnassus after he was banished because he had been involved in an abortive coup attempt.

2- Moreover to travel was very dangerous so that only the merchants  travelled to earn money of course. Herodotus on the contrary travelled to know more and write the results of his inquiries, driven by  hope to preserve the memory of the past by narrating the achievements both of the Greek and the non-Greek peoples, as well as history, ethnology, topography and morality.

3-Also, it was unusual to be a historian in the fifth century BC because it was very difficult first to do historical researches, second to analyse the causes of the wars as well as to remark the connections among some historical facts and finally   to give an impartial  account of these causes, connections and  researches. But Herodotus quite succeeded in doing it.

Hope this brief outline can give you a first insight on this interesting matter.

Best regards
Maria