Erodoto: la storia come scienza positiva

Abstract

Herodotus of Halicarnassus is a far-reaching author who, during the 5th century BC, established history as a discipline based on the positive method. His nine books, although entitled to the nine Muses, were written by the author through field research, as modern anthropologists would have argued. It is no coincidence that Herodotus underlines that the text of his work is the result of the investigation carried out during the long journeys he made. The nine books are in fact the exposition of research carried out by visiting Asia Minor and Hellas, but also Egypt. His gaze extended to the heart of the Mediterranean, which from then on would represent the “mare nostrum”, as the epicentre of a civilization that would take on the nomenclature of the Hellenic language, with the Ionic dialect at its head.