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Conclusion: Herodotus and the Role of the Historian
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Introduction The Histories provides a solution to the problem of empire. Apparently desired by Athens at the end of the book, empire and the imperialist impulse is a fundamental problem of politics, identified by Herodotus in his work. Herodotus in the Histories shows the Athenians, and others like them, that they can satisfy intellectually the desires and dreams that motivate the pursuit of empire politically and militarily—at the same time avoiding the pitfalls and traps that overcame Xerxes and the Persians. Herodotus gives his readers an indication of why he fears imperial expansion: he recounts the many violations of Persian and Egyptian customs committed by Persian king Cambyses in Egypt. In a passage in book 3 of the Histories, Herodotus, intending to prove that Cambyses was mad, makes the following claim: If there were a proposition put before mankind, according to which each should, after examination, choose the best customs in the world, each nation would certainly think its own customs best. Indeed, it is natural for no one but a madman to make a mockery of such things. That this is how men think about their customs one can see from . . . the following case in particular. Darius, during his own rule, called together some of the Greeks who were in attendance on him and asked them what would they take to eat their dead fathers. They said that no price in the world would make them do so. After that, Darius summoned some of the Indians who are called Callatians, who do eat their parents, and, in the presence of the Greeks (who understood the conversation through an interpreter), asked Conclusion Herodotus and the Role of the Historian 159 them what price would make them burn their dead fathers with fire. They shouted aloud “Don’t mention such horrors!” These are the matters of settled custom, and I think Pindar is right when he says, “Custom is king of all.” (III.38) Herodotus does not posit an absolute relativism in the above passage, however. He points to the difficulty of discovering and studying nature, that which lies concealed beneath custom.1 Human beings, it would seem, believe their own customs (nomoi) to be best or most beautiful (kallistous), not because they identify them merely as customary and their own, but rather because they think that their customs are right, that they reflect nature or what is naturally good. When most human beings believe they are looking at nature, they are really looking at what is conventional, or they cannot distinguish between nature and convention.2 Persian king Darius, as the above passage in book 3 suggests, acquired an insight into the power of custom to present itself as nature because of the Persian conquests that brought him into contact with other cultures. Persian imperialism allowed Darius to see and investigate foreign customs and conventions that differed from his own. Darius thus perceives the mere conventionality of all conventions, pointing him to the reality of a nature distinct from conventions.3 Herodotus suggests that the identification of a custom as merely a custom occurs only if one looks to, and compares, the particular customs of others with one’s own. This comparison makes it possible to discover the existence of a nature distinct from custom; it allows one to distinguish between nature, which is universal, and convention, which is particular. Only then can one begin to study one’s true nature, or hope to have self-knowledge. Herodotus aspires to discover and convey such knowledge as he, like Darius, investigates the customs of others, which differ from his own. However, Herodotus does so not through foreign conquest, but through the writing of his Histories. He compares the customs of the Greeks with those of the Egyptians, Persians, Scythians, and many others.4 The danger of the universal empire desired by Xerxes, and apparently desired by Athens at the end of the Histories, is therefore this: Xerxes, in his wish to extend his father’s empire into a universal one, seeks to destroy all foreign customs and conventions by universalizing the particular customs of Persia (VII.8). In thus denying otherness in the world, he would destroy the ability to identify the natural or to distinguish between nature and convention. He would thereby destroy the possibility of self-knowledge. No one could see oneself in light of the differences between oneself and others. The foundation of Herodotus’ own activity would be destroyed as well. 160 Herodotus and the Philosophy of...