HardCover. Pub Date :2013-09-26 Pages: 880 Language: English The Histories of Herodotus. completed in the second half of the 5th century BC. is generally regarded as the first work of history and the first great masterpiece of non-fiction writing. Few history books since can compare for sheer drama with Herodotuss narrative of the Persian invasions of Greece. His accounts of the great battles of Marathon and Thermopylae. of Salamis and Plataea. retain to this day a matchless epic quality. More than this. though. The Histories is also the source of much of our knowledge of the ancient world. Herodotus was an endlessly curious man. and gathered information about the world around him from as many people and places as he could investigate. History was only the beginning of . his interests Whether it was the pyramids of Egypt. the cannabis habit of the Scythians. the flora and fa... - from Amzon