Histories

Herodotus came from Halicarnassus in Asia Minor, a Greek city under Persian rule, and wrote in the second half of the fifth century BC. His nine books trace the rise of Persia from Cyrus the Great to the failure of Xerxes’s invasion of Greece in 480–479 BC, with long digressions on the lands and peoples of the empire, among them a description of Babylon and its temple tower.

He travelled, questioned people and often says where a story comes from, and he reports much that he does not vouch for. For Babylon and the Persian court he depends on what he saw and was told one to four generations after the events. His account of the capture of Babylon by the diversion of the Euphrates differs from the Babylonian records, which speak of an entry without fighting. He is a witness to what was told about these kings and places in the century after them, and he is the fullest narrative source for the reign of Xerxes.