History (from Greek - historia, meaning "inquiry, knowledge acquired by investigation"[2]) is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation

n of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians. It is a field of research which uses a narrative to examine and analyse the sequence of events, and it sometimes attempts to investigate objectively the patterns of cause and effect that determine events

Queen Artemisia's grandson Lygdamis was now on the throne and no credit to that great Queen. Lygdamis was a tyrant of the first water and neither he nor his Persian Overlord Artaxerxes were very popular with the masses. http://www.buzzle.com/articles/herodotus-fatherhistory.html reasons to study history: by studying the different ways that other cultures live, we can learn new and better ways for our culture to live by studying why people fight and have wars, we can try to prevent fighting and end war by studying how things have already been done, we can try new and better ways of doing things by studying other beliefs, we can learn to appreciate every person's ideas and to value our own opinions by studying how people have adapted to different environments on Earth, we can plan how to adapt to new environments, and maybe eventually plan how to survive off planet

Herodotus, the first great writer to document European history, was described by Cicero as 'the father of history'. Cicero, of course, had a great deal of respect for Herodotus. It wasn't an universal sentiment, however, and there were some who considered him 'The father of historical tall tales'. A rather unfair moniker. Herodotus's 'Histories' were meant to be orally narrated and therefore he laid more emphasis on being interesting rather than unerringly accurate. However, as much as possible, he tried to get his facts straight. Herodotus traveled extensively to gather first-hand information about world events and once, after having visited Tyre, sailed all the way back there just to verify one single fact. He also stated in his books that much of what he wrote was 'based on hearsay, mingled with.... my own observation', and said further, "It is my duty to repeat what is said, but to believe unreservedly is not; this remark applies to all my work." Early Years: Herodotus was born sometime around 484 B.C. in Halicarnassus. A prominent city near Asia Minor, Halicarnassus was then ruled by the warrior queen Artemisia. She was a vassal of the Persian King Xerxes and had fought alongside him in the naval battle of Salemis. Nothing is known of his childhood or indeed his growing years - the world historian curiously enough failed to document in detail his own personal history. We next hear of him when he was a young man.