The Histories by Herodotus - 1 - A Curse on King Croesus
Book One (pages 1 - 45)
Quote
"I will cover minor and major human settlements equally, because most of those which were important in the past have diminished in significance by now, and those which were great in my own time were small in times past."
Notes
In the kingdom of Lydia there is a King named Candaules who has a beautiful wife and really wants to show her off. He goes to his most trusted personal guard, Gyges, and says to him: "Gyges, I don't think you believe what I tell you about my wife's looks -- and it's true that people trust their ears less than their eyes -- so I want you to find a way to see her naked."
He puts together a plan for Gyges to see his wife naked, even though Gyges doesn't really want to. Despite his protests, he goes along and does see her naked. But the queen catches him.
The queen calls Gyges back later and says she saw him looking at her and now he either must die, or he must kill King Candaules and take the queen herself as his wife. Gyges reluctantly decides to kill the king.
He is successful, but an oracle says that though he is the rightful king for now, vengeance will come on him four generations later.
Four generations pass and Croesus becomes king. He starts out very well and conquers many other cities. Then he turns his sights on Persia. He consults with oracles on whether or not he should attack them. The Oracle at Delphi tells him that "if he made war on Persia, he would destroy a great empire."
So Croesus plans an attack, but Persia defeats the Lydians and they capture Croesus. He feels deceived. However, "as the oracle had foretold," Herodotus writes, "Croesus had put an end to a great empire -- his own."
Cryus, the emperor of Persia, allows Croesus to live and takes him on as an advisor. He also gives Croesus permission to go back to the oracles to ask them why they tricked him. He goes and the oracle tells him: "Not even a god can escape his ordained fate. Croesus has paid for the crime of his ancestor four generations ago."
Thoughts
In addition to the story outlined above, "The Histories" takes many detours, including one about a guy who rides home on a dolphin after getting robbed and thrown off a boat. You get the sense that Herodotus included any noteworthy story he came across, regardless if it contributed to the main story or not. And regardless if it was verifiable or not.
Maybe Herodotus didn't have a main story in mind. Most people seem to understand "The Histories" as being about the Persian wars. Herodotus's own description is that, "among the matters covered is, in particular, the cause of the hostilities between Greeks and non-Greeks." And, as quoted last time, "to prevent the traces of human events from being erased by time."
It seems as though information was scarce in Herodotus's world and so he wanted to preserve as much as possible to keep it from being lost. He chose to include everything he had with the belief that he himself was not in the position of knowing which details would be most relevant to readers in the future. He leaves it to them to make that judgment for themselves.