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 Herodotus’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.