Herodotus’ Perspective on the Persian Empire

This paper reviews the different models commonly used in understanding Herodotus’ evidence on the Achaemenid Persian empire. It suggests that these approaches—for example, the assessment of Herodotu ’ accuracy, of the level of his knowledge, or of his sympathy for the Persians—systematically underestimate the complexity of his (and of the Greeks’) perspective on the Persian empire: the conflicted perspective of a participant rather than just a detached observer.