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Herodotus

Herodotus

0

Near balanceFormula-derived score

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

Historié as public inquiry into causeethnographic types as a rights costPersian Wars as received war logoi

Impact

Not rated yet: the verified records linked to this person, without a numeric impact.

Editorial assessment (context, not the score)

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 affected

Indicators this person’s verified facts reach. No score contribution is assigned; the observed state is the indicator’s own reading.

Accountability & contradictions

Claims against the record, the type of responsibility, and what is disputed.

What could change this assessment

  • 5 linked facts have no assessed welfare direction yet.
  • Lifetime coverage has not been assessed: the record reflects stored facts only (0430–0525).

Causal path

Person → Fact → Driver → Indicator. Select a path to inspect its factors; the full network opens on demand.

Timeline

The most relevant dated facts, newest first.

Evidence & methodology

How 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.

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

Expert analysis

An excerpt; the full analysis opens on request.

The offices he actually held

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.

What went wrong

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.

What improved

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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