[Sam the Sham]

Herodotus the Greek historian of the Persian Wars said of the Persians that they teach their sons three things.

To ride a horse.
To shoot a bow.
To tell the truth.

[Verginius Rufus]

Mark Twain, in the "acknowledgements" to one of his lesser-known works (The Horse's Tale) has this to say of Herodotus:

Along through the book I have distributed a few anachronisms and unborn historical incidents and such things, so as to help the tale over the difficult places. This idea is not original with me; I got it out of Herodotus. Herodotus says, "Very few things happen at the right time, and the rest do not happen at all: the conscientious historian will correct these defects."