Biographies

Herodotus was a Greek. He lived during the beginning of the classical age, and was often referred to as the father of history because he was the first historian to go out and talk to people and write a history through observation. Herodotus wrote down the histories of the Persian wars. He is best known for his work called "Histories," which was his account of the Persian wars and all of the tension between Greece and Persia. He witnessed some of the war in his life, but was also able to ask his elders about the parts he had missed. This same history also had some things in it about Egypt and its geography and history. He was very thorough and collected many details. Not much is known about Herodotus, even though he was the father of history and one of the most well known historians.

(part of "the histories"- http://tinyurl.com/herodotushistory )

Thucydides was much more of a scholar than Herodotus and really focused on getting the story and all of the details correct. He wrote the history of the Peloponnesian war. Not much else is known about him, other than the information from his history of the Peloponnesian war. We do know, however, that he had great influence and was very wealthy and owned gold mines. He was also a general in the Peloponnesian war, so he had first hand knowledge of what was going on. Herodotus was the first historian, and lived before him, but Thucydides was considered to first true historian.

Livy was a Roman historian. He wrote from Romulus and Remus all the way up to his time period, and therefore has covered a long span of history. Again, there is not much know about this historian. He wrote "The History of Rome from its Foundation." His family was not very rich, but rich enough. They had enough money to send him to fairly good teachers, and he got a pretty good education. When he was young, his province was ruled by Julius Caesar. The war between Caesar and Pompey happened during their time that they were alive. A lot of big events and wars happened during Livy's life span, so he had lots of opportunities to write detailed history.

Sources

Bune, Matt. "Herodotus." Minnesota State University, Mankato. Web. 05 Mar. 2010. http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/egypt/history/people/herodotus.html>.

Lendering, Jona. "Herodotus of Halicarnassus." Livius. Articles on Ancient History. Web. 05 Mar. 2010. http://www.livius.org/he-hg/herodotus/herodotus02.html>.

"Thucydides - Crystalinks." Google. Web. 04 Mar. 2010. http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:http://www.crystalinks.com/thucydides.html>.

Lendering, Jona. "Livy 1: Life." Livius. Articles on Ancient History. Web. 05 Mar. 2010. http://www.livius.org/li-ln/livy/livy.htm>.

Photographs from:

Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. Wikipedia, 28 Apr. 2008. Web. 4 Mar. 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AGMA_Herodotus_7308.jpg>.

Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. Wikipedia, 01 Feb. 2005. Web. 4 Mar. 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Titus_Livius.jpg>.

Photograph. Wikimedia Commons. Wikipedia, 26 Dec. 2008. Web. 4 Mar. 2010. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Thucydides_pushkin02.jpg>.