Herodotus

Called the ‘Father of History’; his Histories tell the story of the Persian Wars and describe the peoples he met on his travels.

Lived	c. 484 BC – 425 BC
Known as	Historian
Birthplace or main place	Halicarnassus
Places on the map	Athens

Map of the world around Herodotus in 500 BC — Border map for 500 BC. See Europe in 500 BC.

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Who ruled these places in his lifetime

Place	At birth (map of 500 BC)	At death (map of 500 BC)
Halicarnassus	Achaemenid Empire	same
Athens	Greek city-states	same

From the border maps nearest to each date; borders are approximate.

Events in his lifetime

Year	Event	Where
447 BC	Work begins on the Parthenon	Athens
480 BC	The Persians burn the Acropolis	Athens

Battles and sites of the time

Battle of Thermopylae · 480 BC
Battle of Salamis · 480 BC

Contemporaries

Lived	Person
495 BC – 429 BC	Pericles	Athenian statesman
470 BC – 399 BC	Socrates	Philosopher

Last updated 9 November 2026. Sources: border data from historical-basemaps, land and rivers from Natural Earth; texts written for Chronica Maps from standard reference works. How we make the maps.

Herodotus

Who ruled these places in his lifetime

Events in his lifetime

Battles and sites of the time

Further reading

Contemporaries