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BODRUM (HALICARNASSUS) Founded possibly in the 11C BC, Halicarnassus came under Persian domination c.540 BC. The Persians ruled through native tyrants, one of whom, Artemisia, shared in the Persian defeat at Salamis (480). Later in the Persian Wars Halicarnassus joined the Delian League. The city enjoyed its greatest prosperity under Mausolus, a Persian satrap who achieved virtual independence in the 4C BC. The temple erected in his honor, the Mausoleum, became one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Captured by Alexander the Great in 334 BC, Halicarnassus soon declined. Early in the 15C AD the Knights of Rhodes built a picturesque castle dedicated to St. Peter. Its walls were built largely of material derived from the ruins of the classical city. Remains of the Mausoleum, excavated in the 1850s, are in the British Museum in London. Halicarnassus was also the hometown of the famous ancient historian Herodotus. Herodotus (c. 5C BC) Little is known with certainty about Herodotus’s life. He was born in Halicarnassus in 484 BC. His work proves that he traveled widely throughout the Mediterranean. Herodotus was a writer who wrote the first historical work in the conventional sense of the term history. He is therefore known as the father of history. Writers before him, such as Hecataeus (c.500 BC), wrote purely geographical treatises. Herodotus tended to ignore the uncertain past. His theme, instead, was the enmity that developed between East and West from the time of Croesus of Lydia (c.550) to the Persian War of 480-79 BC. Herodotus’s History contains valuable and lively discussions of the customs, geography and history of Mediterranean peoples, particularly the Egyptians. In this respect he shows the influence of his great predecessor Hecataeus, but his work was written with wit and dramatic flair. Herodotus possessed a philosophical mind. Convinced that pride preceded a fall, he wrote history in part to show that evil deeds would be punished. He was also persuaded of the general instability of fortune for innocent and guilty alike: unchecked prosperity could not endure even for such well-meaning men as Croesus of Lydia. |