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The Historian As Philosopher - Herodotus and the Strength of Freedom | History Today 10/29/13 The Historian as Philosopher - Herodotus and the Strength of Freedom | History Today Tuesday, 29 October 2013 | Login / Register Search the archive The Historian as Philosopher - Herodotus and the Strength of Freedom Part of the series The Historian as Philosopher (/taxonomy/term/22226) By Irene Brown (/taxonomy/term/491) | Published in History Today (/taxonomy/term/43) Volume: 31 Issue: 2 (/taxonomy/term/2999) 1981 (/taxonomy/term/14755) Tw eet 3 0 Like 11 (/PRINT/5659) (/PRINTMAIL/5659) HISTORIOGRAPHY (/TAXONOMY/TERM/13946) PHILOSOPHY (/TAXONOMY/TERM/194) ANCIENT (/TAXONOMY/TERM/14834) ANCIENT GREECE (/TAXONOMY/TERM/14838) GREECE (/TAXONOMY/TERM/14126) Irene Coltman Brown begins this series on the historian as philosopher by taking a look at the Greek historian known as the Father of History. 'History is philosophy from examples' taught the literary historian, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who worked in Rome some years before the birth of Christ. Some historians have particularly desired to emphasis the philosophical implications of the examples of human experience revealed in their reconstruction of the past. Unable to write coherently without some general conception of the probable causes and effects of human behaviour, these historians have thought it possible to extract from their knowledge of what has been done, advice on what should be done, and even to aspire to predictions of what will most probably be done in the future. This new series on the historian as philosopher ranges from the ancient Greek and Roman historians, through their Italian, French, German and North African successors to the nineteenth-century Russian historian, Plekhanov, but it begins on the note of ambiguity which is characteristic of the philosophy of historians who draw their principles from the contradictory nature of what men and women do instead of the smooth consistency of what they say. Herodotus, who is known as the Father of History, has also been called the Father of Lies. Thus, from the start, the history of writing history warns that historians also share in the frailties of fallible mankind, the long record of which they pass on to every succeeding generation as perhaps their most valuable bequest. History has always had an anti-obscurantist bias as its practitioners shed their light on humanity's dark corners, and Herodotus himself wrote in the illumination cast by the Ionian Enlightenment when, during the sixth century BC, an extraordinary extension of the range of human thought took place amongst the Ionian Greeks living on the west coast of Asia Minor. In that much travelled and vulnerable colony, where a host of strangers passed through on the trade route to Asia, bringing new ideas and ways of life, the Ionian Greeks stood back from their own society to consider the implications of these differing cultures. The revelation that instead of the Ionian way of life being the ordained way, decreed by the gods for man to live and obey their commands, theirs was one of many. This nurtured a scepticism that was to have fundamental implications. Though not entirely free from the mythologising they had intellectually abandoned, this scepticism of the sixth-century Ionian philosophers had the detachment of natural science. 'It made the formation of' the world no longer a supernatural, but a natural event', wrote Professor Cornford. 'Thanks to the Ionians and no one else, this has become the universal premise of all modern science.' Heraclitus called on man in sixth-century Greece to learn the language of nature, aware that what had happened in Ionia was a great awakening. Men rose from an inhibited sleep- www.historytoday.com/irene-brown/historian-philosopher-herodotus-and-strength-freedom 1/6 10/29/13 The Historian as Philosopher - Herodotus and the Strength of Freedom | History Today walking through the universe to a consciousness of the world order that was available to all. They now had a heightened awareness of alternatives, of the relativity of many moral judgements and the validity of different modes of thought. Having taken the leap from obedience to enquiry, the Ionian philosophers explored the cosmos. They had faith that observation would bring them understanding of the effects of the past, of the demands of the present and of the predictable future. Men of science, like Thales of Miletus, believed that the universe had a natural origin and would have a natural ending. He had learned that eclipses occur in cycles. Refusing to accept the old belief that the sky was the medium of divine disfavour, Thales had predicted an eclipse based on scientific observation as being visible in Asia Minor in 585 BC. Anaximander, the astronomer, also groped for the pattern of the cosmos. He drew the first Greek map of the world and detected a universal law in the resolution of its opposing elements. This gave him the courage to welcome change and accept its destructive creation in both nature and society. In the middle of the fifth century an historian was reciting his history in Athens. He was called Herodotus and Halicarnassus on the Asia Minor coast claimed him as its own. His work had developed from the ideas of these Ionian philosophers in the form of an Historia or enquiry into the human constructions of the past. Unwilling to accept a single unilinear story of historical decline as Plato had done, his comprehensive view of the world included the possibility of change and development, and Herodotus rejoiced that the human race was so diverse that one man alone could hardly record their myriad customs and experiences. Involved in the movement towards human equality which was a legacy of the ideas of the Ionian Enlightenment, Herodotus rejected the mystical exclusiveness of the shaman , the religious diviner, and the soothsayer and claimed that 'all men can know equally about divine things' and thus it followed that they were sufficiently equal in judgement to be trusted with political decisions. This direct knowledge of the world was linked by Herodotus to the creative power of human responsibility and freedom and it was on this perception that he built his political faith. In the history of his own people Herodotus saw men tested to the limit of their nature by success and by disaster. He believed that will and courage changed the odds. He may have learned this from Thales who taught that lack of courage in the citizens was a more obvious sign of approaching defeat than a comet. In 504 BC the expanding Persian Empire absorbed the renowned Ionian Greek colony and demanded tribute from its citizens. The Athenians thus realised how short-lived their own freedom would also be unless they could defend their independence from Persian encroachment. The defeat of the Persian invasion of Greece was therefore considered an essential part of the history of Greek freedom, and more so because many Greeks did not consider that they had won accidentally or by a miracle, but they believed they had defeated the Persians because free men are stronger than slaves. Set in Herodotus' History of the Persian Wars is a formalised presentation of the arguments for democracy, aristocracy and kingship. In this historical parable, seven Persians having made a successful coup against their false king, discuss the government they should now establish. One recommended that the whole nation should govern themselves. He reminded the others of the arrogance of tyrants and the temptations for kings who were allowed to do as they liked. Another conspirator, however, advised setting up an oligarchy. He wished the Persians to choose the worthiest citizens and entrust the state to them so that, power having been given to the best men, the best political counsels would prevail. 'Let the enemies of the Persians be ruled by democracies', he concluded, identifying democracy with weakness. But Darius came forward and said 'What government can possibly be better than that of the very best man in the whole state? He chooses the path of justice and moves secretly along it, unhampered by the violent quarrels of aristocratic lords and the corruption of democracy'. The other conspirators then supported Darius and it was decided that the one whose horse first neighed after the sun was up should be chosen. Darius, by a trick, became that one and under his rule the Persian Empire became the most formidable power in the Near East. However, Herodotus had mentioned in passing that, even during the coup, Darius at one critical moment had not known what to do and his History of the Persian Wars shows the concentration of decision-making in one man as a source of weakness in the Persian Empire. Monarchy did not give the state the strength which Darius claimed. Such absolute power needed to be exercised with absolute wisdom which is beyond the power of mortal men. In contrast, the power of Athens grew with her www.historytoday.com/irene-brown/historian-philosopher-herodotus-and-strength-freedom 2/6 10/29/13 The Historian as Philosopher - Herodotus and the Strength of Freedom | History Today freedom so that Herodotus could say 'freedom is an excellent thing'. He claimed that before the Athenian citizens won their freedom they were no braver than anyone else but, as soon as they shook off their despotic rule and were equally free to speak on political affairs, Athens became the first city-state in Greece. While they lived in servitude the Athenians did not care if they were conquered, for they had nothing to lose, but as soon as they got their freedom, each man fought to defend it. Asia's recurrent thrust towards Europe was thwarted by Europe's free institutions and Athens was fated to bear the brunt of this frustrated challenge.
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