How Ancient Greek Historians Saw History

Mesopotamia, one of the earliest civilizations used pictograms and writing to keep records. There were scribes that recorded daily events. Another way that Mesopotamia kept records was through storytelling. Storytellers would have passed stories down over generations. This went on for many years until Greek historians came along.

Ancient Greek historians were very similar, they changed the whole concept of history. They changed how history was presented and told. But Herodotus, Thucydides and Plutarch believed differently. They all agreed that storytelling was not the most efficient way to present history. There were other factors that went into history and we were all thinking of history too lightly. These Ancient Greek historians showed a different way to learn and share history. Their ways to understand history are the foundation of how we perceive history nowadays. Herodotus was born in Greece and was an ancient Greek historian, He wrote history about the Persian Wars. Even though he liked the idea of freedom, which he called Barbarity, he looked up to the Persian Empire. He thought that we should all have peace in our life and that we should be trained to be a free citizen. The people then were so caught up on obeying commands and trying to please gods according to Marvin Perry in “Western Civilization: A Brief History”. This may be one of the reasons he thought so negatively about the king Xerxes. Herodotus hated how absolute Xerxes was. Xerxes wanted to be the king of Asian and Europe. Xerxes was trying to be a superhuman or mortal and he had to realize that he was only human. Herodotus wrote about this particular incident in his book The Histories. In one part after he proposes his plan to conquer Asia and Europe, his uncle tells him “You know, my lord, that amongst living creatures it is the great ones that God smites with his thunder, out of their pride…For God tolerates pride in none but himself.”

Herodotus always that there would be punishment for when people had too much power, absolutism and pride. Herodotus had many different views on how history should be told. According to Marvin Perry, He always thought that you should keep asking questions. You have to have curious and learn to actually figure out what happened and the reasons or motivations behind the actions. You cannot keep just repeat the sand legends or pieces of story. Another thing he strongly believed was that you have to be careful with the information of history you are given. You have to make sure they are true and verify them. You cannot just assume they are true. In Herodotus’ history the gods were less important than the Greek mythology stories. This was Herodotus’ version of history. Thucydides was also born in Greece, but specifically in Athens. He was born a little after Herodotus. Just like Herodotus Thucydides was a historian and was not your typical historian at that time. Thucydides concentrated on a different war, the Peloponnesian War and looked at the war’s political crisis.