Herodotus on the American Empire

Herodotus tends to be overlooked as a commentator on international relations. This paper seeks to redress this, by exploring the reflections on empire within the Histories—and by analogy with more recent imperialisms. Far from empire being an unexamined fact of nature, what emerges from Herodotus' text is an immensely self-conscious exploration: of the contribution of individuals to imperial expansion, of empires' tendency to project their values as universal, or the role of historian in relation to power. Crucially also, the transfer of empire implicit at the end of the Histories from Persia to Athens can be seen in a broader context in which any number of future powers wait in the wings.