Alternately called the 'father of history' and the 'father of lies', Herodotus of Halicarnassus (on the coast of Asia Minor) wrote the first real history of Greece, from the mythical beginnings until the victory of Greece over Persia in 479 B.C. He is something of a tourist, claiming to have visited many different lands around the Mediterranean (though this is doubtful) and collected first-hand accounts from the natives. His work, in 9 books written in the ionic dialect, is a rambling series of loosely connected narratives; if there is any common theme, it is the relationship between human actions and divine will, highlighted by the results of human hubris.