Top Ten Best Ancient Historians

Herodotus is known as "The Father of History" for a reason. He was a Greek historian who lived from 484 B.C. to 425/413 B.C. While his writings are often highly fictionalized, they are reliable in the basic concepts of history. He admitted this, stating that he wrote down what the majority of people remembered about tradition and history.

Herodotus traveled the world and recorded everything from people's cultures to their traditions. His writings became known as "Histories," from which we derive the term "history." He died during the Plague of Athens during the Peloponnesian War.

Plutarch is so underrated. When I was researching for this list, Plutarch never came up. I knew of him because of multiple school projects and the research I did for other lists.

Plutarch was a philosopher and historian from Greece. He was born in 46 A.D. and died sometime after 120 A.D. His most famous contribution to history was his series of biographies called "Parallel Lives." These biographies contributed massively to our knowledge of former peoples. He often compared two historical figures, such as Julius Caesar and Alexander the Great. He also made significant contributions in philosophy and writing.

Suetonius was a Roman writer born in 69 A.D. who died sometime between 130 A.D. and 140 A.D. I am confused as to why we never know their exact death dates. Suetonius is primarily known for his biographies of the 12 Caesars. He is one of the primary sources for learning about Roman history in the late B.C.'s and the first century. He is one of the greatest historians in history.

Livy is a very important historian. He lived from around 59 B.C. to 17 A.D. Livy recorded the history of Rome from its founding to the reign of Augustus Caesar. Like Herodotus, a lot of his writing was hearsay, but most historians still believe him to be a credible and accurate source. Without Livy's work, we wouldn't know nearly as much about Roman history.

Lucius Cassius Dio was a Roman historian and statesman who lived from 155 A.D. to 235 A.D. He was an incredibly important historian who wrote 80 volumes about the founding of Rome up to 227 A.D. Unlike many others on this list, almost all of his work is still intact. Many historians get their information from Cassius Dio, though much of his work was based on the work of others with revisions.

Titus Flavius Josephus was a Jewish priest, scholar, and historian who lived from 37 A.D. or 38 A.D. to 100 A.D. He wrote about the Hebrew Wars and Jewish Revolts. He is also one of the writers who recorded the life of Jesus of Nazareth outside of the Apostles of Christ. To say the least, Josephus was a very important historian.

Polybius was a Greek historian who lived from c. 200 B.C. to 118 B.C. He was vital in documenting Roman conquests and provided an eyewitness account of the sacks of both Carthage and Corinth. He was an important Hellenistic writer.

Sallust was a Roman historian who lived from 86 B.C. to 35 B.C. After an unsuccessful military career and being expelled from the Senate after a fight with the great orator Cicero, Sallust turned to writing. He recorded the chaos of his time and expressed his opinion that Roman morality was falling.

Thucydides was a Greek historian who lived from c. 460 B.C. to c. 400 B.C. He recorded the 30-year Peloponnesian War, and unlike Herodotus, everything he wrote was based on eyewitness accounts. He was a very credible and reliable historian.

There are no exact dates for his life, but he was active around the 1st century B.C. as a Greek historian. He wrote about the mythical times of the Mediterranean area up to 60 B.C. He is known for his "Bibliotheca Historia." I hope you enjoyed the list. Feel free to comment, remix, or even share. Thanks for reading.