SYDE101 Lecture 6: Persian Wars

• School: University of Waterloo
• Department: Systems Design Engineering
• Course: SYDE101
• Professor: Nicholas Maes

Document Summary

I am referring to the persian wars of course. Our source for the persian wars is herodotus of halicarnassus (a city in asia minor). Herodotus will travel extensively (across greece and outside greece as well), his place of birth is possibly meaningful from a historiographical perspective. First off, asia minor means that herodotus would have met his share of non-greeks. Perhaps his upbringing in such a cosmopolitan locale accounts for his multi-cultural" perspective (an anachronistic term no doubt but i"ll used it anyway). As the very first lines of his famous histories reveal (see handout) herodotus appreciated brilliance whether it was greek in origin or barbaric (i. e. non-greek). Indeed, a later historian, plutarch, would call herodotus philobarbaros" ( a lover of barbarians"), the implication being he was too enamoured with barbarian ways and insufficiently greek in outlook. Herodotus too grew up very close to miletus which, as we shall see, was in some ways the birth- place of greek philosophy.