Replies

I wouldn't call call Aristotle merely a scribe. After all, he is the first man that we know of who was a keen observer of nature, both living, and non living, and offer up some sort of coherent theories as to the make up of things and how they functioned. Also, offered up a counterpoint to Plato's forms. Probably his most glaring weakness was that he spread himself too thin. The guy was interested in everything under the sun (and the sun too).

As for Homer, The Illiad and The Oddessy were written so far back before the period we are discussing, until we don't have any real evidence as to exactly when they were written, or in fact, that anyone named Homer even wrote the things. Herodotus told a good story, but only in a generalized way can we say that his "Histories" is really a history book. Rather, I would say it is part travellog and part fairy tales. He did tell a good story, as I said, and he did give good insight into some of the more obscure cultures of the near east. His is a great work no doubt, but one has to realize what it is, and accept it as that.

I would say that Thucydides was a more accurate and insightful historian.