Changes

Almost as soon as humans invented writing, they began writing about their own and other people’s histories, which we know today as “historiography.” Although the peoples of ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Persia recorded past events in the form of king-lists and annals and therefore can said to have practiced “historiography,” the ancient Greeks were the first people to write critical, narrative histories. Due to that distinction, the modern historiographical tradition is generally traced directly back to the Greeks. The Greeks were also the first people to have true historians as they are known today. The fifth century Greek historian, Herodotus, is generally thought of as “the father of history,” while Thucydides (c. 460-400 BC) is often seen as the leader of the second generation of Greek historians. The writing styles and methodologies of these early historians may seem biased and a bit crude by modern historiographical standards, but they were part of a complex and evolving tradition that began in the late sixth century BC and continued into the Roman Imperial Period.