Who was Herodotus?

Herodotus was the world first known Historian, he wrote The Histories, a collection of stories and facts form the ancient world, and some extras.

“In the Histories, he describes the expansion of the Achaemenid empire under its kings Cyrus the Great, Cambyses and Darius the Great, culminating in king Xerxes' expedition in 480 BCE against the Greeks, which met with disaster in the naval engagement at Salamis and the battles at Plataea and Mycale. Herodotus' remarkable book also contains ethnographic descriptions of the peoples that the Persians have conquered, fairy tales, gossip, legends, and a very humanitarian morale.” [Quoted from here]

While much of what he wrote has been confirmed by archeological evidence and other sources; the truth of much of it is still in question (I hope this blog doesn’t have that problem.) In any case; Herodotus is possibly the most important source of knowledge we have on that time period.