Herodotus' The Histories

The very first history book ever written – read distilled as Herodotus wrote it 2,500 years ago.

In 440 BC, a curious traveler from Halicarnassus set out to preserve “the great and marvelous deeds of both the Greeks and barbarians” before they vanished from memory. What he produced is The Histories: nine books that sweep from the palaces of Lydia and the pyramids of Egypt to the nomad horsemen of Scythia and the epic war between the Greeks and the Persians.