
Herodotus
Near balanceFormula-derived score
Greek inquirer (conventional 5th c. BCE). Documented harms: Egyptian types, barbaros, palace-anecdotes, tribute, Ionian sack, Thermopylae as later poster.

Near balanceFormula-derived score
Greek inquirer (conventional 5th c. BCE). Documented harms: Egyptian types, barbaros, palace-anecdotes, tribute, Ionian sack, Thermopylae as later poster.
Not rated yet: the verified records linked to this person, without a numeric impact.
1 January 525 · Driver: Judicial Independence
1 January 522 · Driver: Democratic Resilience
1 January 494 · Driver: Forced-Displacement Scale
1 September 490 · Driver: Humanitarian Access
The record is not a marble father of history and not a unique author of 1991 posters. The heaviest documented costs in the received inquiry are ethnographic types, barbaros, palace-anecdotes, extraction stories, and war logoi later polarised. The offsets are a method proem, printed speeches including isonomia, opsis/akoē, and custom as king. Godley and Perseus date the evidence, not the acts. Confidence is high on the major logoi as transmitted Greek, medium on event-year precision, low on Olympia recitation, Thurii, and Cambyses' clinical madness.
Indicators this person’s verified facts reach. No score contribution is assigned; the observed state is the indicator’s own reading.
Linked through a verified fact
Observed
0.62 · 0.25 below the normal line (2024)
Worse than normal125 readings, 1900–2024: rose from 0.37 to 0.62.
Above normal = better
Linked through a verified fact
Observed
0.53 · 0.34 below the normal line (2024)
Worse than normal125 readings, 1900–2024: rose from 0.17 to 0.53.
Above normal = better
Linked through a verified fact
Observed
42.5 index score (0-100) · 7.53 below the normal line (Dec 2025)
Worse than normalAbove normal = better
Linked through a verified fact
Observed
29.8% of population aged 16-65 years · 8.13 below the normal line (2023)
Worse than normalTwo readings: 30.2% of population aged 16-65 years (2021) and 29.8% of population aged 16-65 years (2023).
Above normal = better
Linked through a verified fact
Observed
3.08 Per 1000 people · 1.24 below the normal line (2023)
Worse than normal6 readings, 2018–2023: rose from 3.07 Per 1000 people to 3.08 Per 1000 people.
Above normal = better
Linked through a verified fact
Observed
70% of 10-year-olds · 70 above the normal line (2022)
Worse than normalTwo readings: 57% of 10-year-olds (2019) and 70% of 10-year-olds (2022).
Above normal = worse
Claims against the record, the type of responsibility, and what is disputed.
Claimed
What happened
Responsibility
responsibility level 0.32
responsibility level 0.48
responsibility level 0.4
responsibility level 0.32
What could change this assessment
Person → Fact → Driver → Indicator. Select a path to inspect its factors; the full network opens on demand.
The most relevant dated facts, newest first.
1 January 525 · Judicial Independence
The Cambyses logos stores a mad-king file of sanctuary outrage and arbitrary killing as received royal harm1 January 522 · Democratic Resilience
The constitutional debate among Persian nobles is stored as composed speeches, not as Herodotus' vote1 January 494 · Forced-Displacement Scale
The Ionian revolt logos narrates Miletus sacked and people moved as received war inquiry, not as his command1 September 490 · Humanitarian Access
The Marathon logos stores a 490 landing, a fight, and a later run-myth neighbourhood as received war inquiry1 September 480 · Humanitarian Access
The Salamis-neighbourhood logos narrates Athens evacuated and the Acropolis burned as received war harm1 August 480 · Protection of Minority Rights
The Salamis logos names Artemisia of Halicarnassus as a commanding woman in Xerxes' fleetHow the record is sourced and how the score is derived.
32 of 32 linked facts verified, drawing on 10 distinct sources (0430–0525).
Sources include Perseus Digital Library / Tufts, Encyclopaedia Britannica, Cambridge University Press.
Sources (showing 8 of 10)
The score is formula-derived (Factrail formula v1, version 1.0.0), not an editorial verdict. Read the methodology.
By the Factrail desk · Method: how we source and score · Last reviewed · Sources: 10
An excerpt; the full analysis opens on request.
Herodotus is an inquirer, not a magistrate of a recovered Halicarnassus archive. Britannica at https://www.britannica.com/biography/Herodotus-Greek-historian (opens in a new tab), Stanford at https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/herodotus/ (opens in a new tab), IEP at https://iep.utm.edu/herodotus/ (opens in a new tab), and the Cambridge Companion at https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-companion-to-herodotus/ (opens in a new tab) are independent public files. Perseus Godley English at https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.01.0126 (opens in a new tab) is a later carrier used to locate logoi, not a 1920 act of his hand. Livius at https://www.livius.org/articles/person/herodotus/ (opens in a new tab) marks the vita as thin. The Met bust at https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/247002 (opens in a new tab) is a Roman copy.
The first fact about his power is a book. The second is a set of logoi inside that book — Egyptian types, war, speeches — that still move classrooms. The third is a later marble that must not be upgraded to a face.
Later lives put him in a tyranny's city. The Egyptian logos types a people. Barbaros works as othering. Palace anecdotes school wives as plot. Tribute and captives are the machine. Miletus is sacked in the Ionian logos. Thermopylae becomes a poster. Athens burns. Marathon is a killing-field logos. Helots appear as furniture. There is no autograph. Olympia recitation is a later claim. Pyramid labour is a mass-work story. Cambyses is a mad-king file of low confidence.
The proem of historié. Otanes' isonomia speech, which is not Herodotus' vote. Both-sides orations. Opsis, akoē, gnōmē. Nomos as king. Nile theories compared. Names of peoples. Artemisia as commander. Croesus as a cause-question. Inscriptions cited. Thurii as a later panhellenic notice. A medical remark. A road-file. A marked refusal to vouch.
Related people: Thucydides as later counterpart; Xerxes and Darius as kings of the logoi; Leonidas at the pass; Aeschylus of Persians; Plutarch as later critic; Homer as poetic neighbour; Pericles as neighbouring Athens; Solon in the Croesus logos; Cyrus in Book 1.
The live Person UUID is the production identity. A Roman copy is not a sitting. Nine books are not nine mornings. Later Loeb, UNESCO, and encyclopedia pages are evidence, not additional acts. Related 2024–2025 news about COP, NATO, or a chancellorship is not a relation. Shared work remains named. What would change the reading is a contradictory original with a different date or signatory. Shared work remains named. Shared work remains named. Shared work remains named.
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