nouveau

we have to give respect to the very first person to do something, of course, and if 400s BC isn't the oldest history ever written (apparently the chinese had an imperial chronicle as late as 8th century BCE, but these are lost, and might have been mere lists of tax receipts), it is certainly the oldest historical narrative, and extended history piece.

what does eternity say to us?

well, war defines human politics and when women are abducted, sometimes they are consenting.

ha

seriously tho' if you want the classics professor's take, it's that herodotus apparently does echo mere heresay but otherwise huge portions of his claims have been confirmed by archeological evidence. and the greeks knew of the ethiopians, the indians, ; they divided the world between 'europe' and 'asia' but believed europe was as big as asia.

in that sense, the east-west divide was being discussed as early as 450BCE. christ! but of course those asiatic turks are still orientals, and we proud few europeans still run the world...

for now