Herodotus

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…place, our knowledge of early Greek history becomes consecutive and extensive only when we can draw on the information picked up and preserved by Herodotus; and we know the great Persian wars, which halted the expansion of the Persian Empire at a crucial point, almost entirely from his history. Secondly, Herodotus began the writing oh history in the Western world, although few historians have tried to emulate his remarkable scope and intricate pattern of organization.