Herodotus and Thucydides: “The Fathers” of the science of the past

Abstract

Human history began to be enacted with the appearance of the first humans on earth. However, the systematic study of history did not start with our first ancestors. Many ages elapsed before humans learned to pay serious attention to the recovery and reconstruction of the past. The first attempts started in the Egyptian, Mesopotamian and the Chinese worlds, long before the fifth century B.C.E. Nevertheless, Herodotus and Thucydides of ancient Greece, who undertook their studies of the past in the fifth century B.C.E. have been regarded as the founders of the systematic study of the past: Herodotus as “the Father of History”, and Thucydides as “the Father of Scientific History”. The credit for the start of the systematic study of history has been given to these two ancient Greek historiographers due to the fact that until Herodotus’ time, history had been confused or mixed with fables, whereas Thucydides’ achievement lay in his application of the principles of medical science to the reconstruction of the past. Depending exclusively on secondary documents, this study examines the context in which Herodotus and Thucydides reconstructed the past and earned their enviable titles. To be able to do this successfully, the study first briefly reappraises pioneering attempts at the study of history. It then analyses the historical careers of the two historiographers. Finally, the study attempts a justification of the positions of the two giants in history based on the findings of the study