AN ACCOUNT OF EGYPT

By Herodotus


Translated By G. C. Macaulay




NOTE

HERODOTUS was born at Halicarnassus, on the southwest coast of Asia
Minor, in the early part of the fifth century, B. C. Of his life we know
almost nothing, except that he spent much of it traveling, to collect
the material for his writings, and that he finally settled down at
Thurii, in southern Italy, where his great work was composed. He died in
424 B. C.

The subject of the history of Herodotus is the struggle between the
Greeks and the barbarians, which he brings down to the battle of Mycale
in 479 B. C. The work, as we have it, is divided into nine books,
named after the nine Muses, but this division is probably due to the
Alexandrine grammarians. His information he gathered mainly from oral
sources, as he traveled through Asia Minor, down into Egypt, round
the Black Sea, and into various parts of Greece and the neighboring
countries. The chronological narrative halts from time to time to give
opportunity for descriptions of the country, the people, and their
customs and previous history; and the political account is constantly
varied by rare tales and wonders.