History Literature / TheHistories

* TheGoodQueen: Assyrian queens of Babylon are united, each one contributing to economic and defensive projects.

A few sentences from ''The Histories'' were adapted by Frank Miller for ''ComicBook/ThreeHundred'' in order to show a conflict between "Western" and "Eastern" civilizations, with the "Western" one embodying freedom and the "Eastern" one being decadent and morally corrupt. So the young moviegoers say. But there is another account which shall be related here. ''The Histories'' upheld bravery and moral virtue, and sought it in any person who had a shred of it, no matter Hellenic (Western) or Persian (Eastern). So say the people who have actually read ''The Histories'' and studied history in any sort of disciplined manner.

A few sentences from ''The Histories'' were adapted by Frank Miller for ''ComicBook/ThreeHundred'' in order to show a conflict between "Western" and "Eastern" civilizations, with the "Western" one embodying freedom and the "Eastern" one being decadent and morally corrupt. So the young moviegoers say. But there is another account which shall be related here. ''The Histories'' upheld bravery and moral virtue, and sought it in any civilization which had a shred of it, no matter Hellenic (Western) or Persian (Eastern). So say the people who have actually read ''The Histories'' and studied history in any sort of disciplined manner.

Herodotus is the main source on the GrecoPersianWars. His book is what gives the word 'history' the sense of an account of the past.

Young audiences will know Herodotus' material best from Frank Miller's ''ComicBook/ThreeHundred''.

* {{Retcon}}: Helen of Sparta (more often known as Helen of Troy) visited a temple on the Nile Delta in Egypt after going off with Alexandrus. [[spoiler: In fact, Herodotus says Helen never made it Troy, and thus the Trojan war was [[ShaggyDogStory all for naught]]. After the war, Menelaus found her in Upper Egypt.]]

* YouCantFightFate: After his Magi interpret a dream of Medean king Astyages to mean that his baby grandson Cyrus would overthrow him, Astyages gave Cyrus to a shepherd (indirectly) to be killed. The shepherd instead raised Cyrus as his own child, and the child went on to overthrow Astyages and became Cyrus the Great, the first emperor of Persia.

* ATasteOfTheLash: When the pontoon bridge across the Strait of Hellespont, meant to carry the Persian army into Greece, is damaged in a storm, Xerxes has the strait lashed as punishment.

* TheCaligula: Cambyses, son of CyrusTheGreat comes across as this.
* TheMole: Zopyros son of Megabyzos, a Persian who gained the trust of the Babylonians only to turn the city over to Darius.

* RainOfArrows: Invoked by a Greek native of the region near Thermopylæ, who was trying to warn the Greek army about the multitude of their Persian enemies: "...when they shot forth their arrows the sun would be darkened by their multitude"[[hottip:*:These words were given to a Persian in Frank Miller's [[ThreeHundred 300]] .

* HistoryMarchesOn: Something Herdotus is prone to in his account of the Near Eastern empires, In his account of Egyptian History, Herodotus has Khufu (a.k.a. Cheops, the king who built the Great Pyramid) living at around 900 BC or so. Khufu actually lived around 2500 BC. Also, Herodotus claims Khufu was a cruel tyrant but modern historical evidence suggests Khufu was well loved and his reign prosperous. Also, there was probably no "Median empire", not if the contemporary literary and archeological evidence is anything to go by. Medes, yes, but they were probably more like a patchwork of tribes and city-states that miiiight have been on the road to forming an empire.

* RainOfArrows: Invoked by a Greek native of the region near Thermopylae, who was trying to warn the Greek army about the multitude of their Persian enemies: "...when they shot forth their arrows the sun would be darkened by their multitude".[[hottip:*:These words were given to a Persian in Frank Miller's [[ThreeHundred 300]].]]

* SecretPath: Persia is able to break the stalemate at the Battle of Thermopylae when Ephialtes of Trachis, a Greek, told them about a secret path around the pass.

* NiceJobBreakingItHerod: The Oracle of Delphi prophesied that a certain baby (Cypselus) would overthrow the ruling house of Corinth and become a tyrant. The ruling house of Corinth tried to have the baby killed, but failed.

* PerspectiveFlip: With respect to the [[TheBible Old Testament]]. In ''The Histories'', the Persians are the [[BigBad Big Bads]]. In the Old Testament, the Persians (especially Darius) are considered heroes by the Jews, because they freed the Jews from their exile in Babylon.

* RetCon: Helen of Sparta (more often known as Helen of Troy) visited a temple on the Nile Delta in Egypt after going off with Alexandrus. [[spoiler: In fact, Herodotus says Helen never made it Troy, and thus the Trojan war was [[ShaggyDogStory all for naught]]. After the war, Menelaus found her in Upper Egypt.]]

[[quoteright:350:[[http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kaulbach,_Wilhelm_von_-_Die_Seeschlacht_bei_Salamis_-_1868.JPG http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Battle_of_Salamis_Kaulbach1868_5437.jpg]]]]

Herodotus is the author of ''The Histories'', an account of the rise of the Persian Empire, and its conflicts with neighboring states and peoples, particularly the Greeks. His book is what gives the word 'history' the sense of an account of the past.

[[caption-width-right:350: [- "The Battle of Salamis" (Wilhelm Kaulbach, 1868) -] ]]

-->''"These are the inquiries of Herodotus of Halicarnassus, put forth so that the great and terrible deeds of Greeks and barbarians alike shall not be forgotten for all of time; and more importantly, to show how the two races came into conflict."''

Modern audiences will know Herodotus' material best from Frank Miller's ''[[ThreeHundred 300]]''.

-->''"This is the showing-forth of the inquiry of Herodotus of Halicarnassus, so that neither what has come to be from man in time might become faded, nor that great and wondrous deeds, those shown forth by Greeks and those by barbarians, might be without their glory; and together with all this, also through what cause they warred with each other."''

Herodotus is the author of ''The Histories'', an account of the rise of the Persian Empire, and its conflicts with neighbouring states and peoples, particularly the Greeks. His book is what gives the word 'history' the sense of an account of the past.