Herodotus was a Greek historian, who never stopped asking questions. He observed everything and everyone he came in contact with. The book, Herodotus and Sima Qian the First Great Historians of Greece and China, contains short documentaries that Herodotus wrote himself about things he witnessed and things he was informed about. These documentaries distinguish ideas and judgments that Herodotus experienced during his travel. One judgment that the text mentions is Herodotus’ opinion of a civilized being and a barbarian. According to the text, the Greek people believed that everyone who was not a Greek was a barbarian. This included people who lived close to Greece, but were not living in the city. The text also mentions that Greeks considered …show more content…
Herodotus mentions how powerful Croesus was compared to Greek people, therefore, a barbarian, according to the standards, was similar to the Greeks. Herodotus writes a considerable amount about the Persians, who are believed to be the most prominent barbarians in his lifetime. He describes many of the customs of the Persians and compares them to Greek customs. For example, it is mentioned that the Persians eat relatively large meals for their birthdays, while the “Greeks leave a meal hungry because they have nothing worth mentioning served to them” (Herodotus 47). At this Herodotus would ask, “If the Persians are the barbarians, then why do they have so much more to eat than the Greeks?” Although the Persians have many barbaric qualities, such as, adopting foreign customs and fathers not being with their sons until they are five, Herodotus admires their king for not putting people to death for one wrong doing and that no one kills their own father or mother. He believes these acts of compassion are civilized and not barbaric. In contrast, Herodotus makes a side note of the mages and how they kill all animals with their hands and seemed to enjoy to do