Histories offers an account of the Greco-Persian War, explaining the early fifth-century BCE conflict and lingering in the sixth-century circumstances that led to its eruption. As a work of historical non-fiction, Histories features many historical figures, though their characterization and deeds are a contrivance of Herodotus’s historical style. As such, these figures appear as an amalgam of truth and hearsay, born of the observations of those who encountered them and were affected by them, a collection of divisive realities the author combines into a single entity. Indeed, the characters featured in Herodotus’s Histories offer a loose account of who these men and women truly were, and scholars often question the accuracy of Herodotus’s true-to-life intentions. Authenticity aside, these are some of the most important figures who appear in the work: 

Croesus

The King of Lydia, an ancient kingdom located in modern day Turkey, who ruled from approximately 560 to 546 BCE. Croesus’s rule intersected with the rise of Cyrus the Great, the first king of the newly-formed Persian Empire, who gained his thrown by overthrowing his grandfather, Astyages. Upset at this development, Croesus began to prepare for war, intending to quash the upstart nation finding its footing along his borders. He sought the advice of the Delphic Oracle and received the famously misleading advice: “If you attack, a great empire shall fall.” Attack he did, and in 546 BCE, Lydia, a thriving nation and “great empire,” fell to their Persian neighbors. While tertiary to the main narrative arc of the Greco-Persian War, the fall of Croesus and the defeat of Lydia act as the opening victory that led the Persian Empire to its expansionist, conquest-oriented ways. Croesus’s misstep launched the Persian expansion engine and, in so doing, catalyzed the eventual war the Histories records.

Cyrus the Great

In 550 BCE, Cyrus II of Persia founded the Achaemenid Empire, also known as the first Persian Empire, which united the Medes and Persians. Under his rule, the empire quickly expanded, conquering the neighboring state of Lydia,then the Neo-Babylonian Empire, and, later, some areas of Southwest Asia. Cyrus was a skilled ruler and administrator and offered his subjects an unusual degree of religious freedom and human rights. The early days of the Persian Empire were marked by rapid expansion, and these early successes filtered through the rulers to come, inspiring even further growth and conquest. However, the empire’s expansion-minded governance did not indicate a lapse in internal governance. Cyrus established a governing ethos of goodwill and fair treatment that would live on in his successors, just as his desire for conquest.

Cambyses II

The son of Cyrus the Great, Cambyses II ruled for a relatively short time, dying childless of a gangrenous wound after a battle in Syria. Camybses II continued the expansion program of his father and added Egypt to the Persian Empire.

Darius

Darius I or Darius the Great lived from approximately 550 to 486 BC. He was responsible for several administrative reforms of the Persian Empire, including its division into provinces, creation of an extensive road network, and standardization of weights and measures. He was the son of the satrap of Bactria, and stories of how he replaced Cambyses on the throne are varied and not entirely reliable. Darius led the empire to new heights, earning several military successes in the east before eventually beginning a western campaign which ended with his defeat at the Battle of Marathon. Under Darius’s rule, Persia embarked on the campaign that directly led to the Greco-Persian War, catalyzing the Ionian Revolt and bringing about two decades of major conflict that would ultimately cripple Persian...