Father of History. Herodotus has been christened "the Father of History," but he had several predecessors, with whom he was not afraid to disagree, but who clearly paved the way for his work. Chief among these was Hecataeus who flourished around 500 B.C.E. and who was a native of Miletus, not far up the coast of Asia Minor from Herodotus's Halicarnassus. The fragments of Hecataeus indicate that he too had a great interest in geography, writing a systematic tour of the then known world around the coasts of the Mediterranean and Black seas. However, a separate historical work makes clear how different he was from Herodotus: the titles applied to it by the ancients—Histories, Genealogies and Stories of Heroes—indicate the subject matter of his historie (enquiry). This impression is confirmed by the fragments, which are concerned with mythology. Also, although...