The Histories Livy Analysis

“In history you have the record of the infinite variety of human experience plainly set out for all to see; and in that record you can find for yourself both examples and warnings: fine things to take as models, base things, rotten through and through to avoid.” (Livy 34). Herodotus lived centuries before Livy’s time, but fits Livy’s view of the historian’s job remarkably well, with only a few minor discrepancies. The anecdotal nature of The Histories lends itself well to stories of morality, to give its audience Livy’s “fine things to take as models, base things [...] to avoid,” although the focus is not necessarily on cultural values, but rather to document the history, as he knew it, of the Greek world.

In the opening lines of The Histories,

Herodotus makes this clear, stating that he undertook his research “so that human achievements man not become forgotten in time [...] and especially to show why the two peoples fought with each other.” (1.0). This is not entirely dissimilar to Livy, with a stronger emphasis on preserving knowledge of the past and educating Athenians on their history rather than on conveying a moral message, although the message is still there. For instance, in the history of Pisistratus, son of Hippocrates, there is a comment that Chilon the Lacedaemonian, one of the seven wise men of Ancient Greece, had advised Hippocrates to avoid having children, based on an omen (Herod. 1.59). This is the only direct mention that Pisistratus may not have been the best thing to happen to Athens, with his violence and tyranny. The same applies to the Battles of Marathon and Salamis. While the primary purpose of their portrayal appears to be the glorification of those who fought, and as a record of the events themselves, evident in the list of ships in the fleet, “16 ships from Lacedaemon, the same number from Corinth as at Artemisium, 15 from Sicyon, 10 from Epidaurus [...]” (Herod. 8.42)
Although the focus is not necessarily on Greek values, it is a subject that appears quite frequently.

There is a plethora of anecdotes conveying the ideals of Athenian society, from celebrated heroes to moral tales of wisdom and adherence to ethical codes. An example of the latter is the tale of Gyges and Candaules, to tell the tale of succession. “Candaules conceived a passion for his own wife,” and wanted others to observe her beauty. Candaules, king of Sardis, demanded that his bodyguard, Gyges, see her naked, a major taboo. Gyges is in no position to disobey his king, so he does as directed. The queen realizes, and since only her husband can see her naked, tells Gyges: “Kill Candaules and seize the throne, with me as your wife; or die yourself on the spot [...] One of you must die; either my husband, the author of this wicked plot; or you, who have outraged propriety.” He chose the first option, and becomes the head of a new dynasty (Herod 1.8-12). In this case, the breach of morality ends up with one king dead and another rising into a colorful new dynasty, something that never would have happened if the original king had simply kept to propriety: this is Herodotus’ purpose in including anecdotes such as this; a bridge between etiology and a lesson in

morals.
However, Herodotus was not entirely loyal to portraying Livy’s clause of “the infinite variety” of human experience. He was somewhat biased toward Athens and Greece. This is likely because he himself was Greek, as was his audience. Whether or not this bias was intentional, it is still evident, particularly in the description of the Babylonians. Perhaps his sources were unreliable, or perhaps he created her himself, but the fact stands that there never was a queen of Babylon named Nitocris, and most of the things she was described as having done were, in fact, done by Nebuchadnezzar (Herod. 1.185-188). Between the fiction of Nitocris and various other stories Herodotus decided to tell about Babylon, particularly that of the tradition of a wife prostituting herself at the temple of the fertility goddess before consummating her marriage (Herod. 1.199), an appalling tradition in the conservative eyes of the Greeks, it seems as though Herodotus was selecting and arranging his tales of Babylon in a manner to demean the city, which was under the control of the Persians during his lifetime.