ii. THE HISTORIES AS A SOURCE FOR PERSIA AND PERSIANS An
evaluation of Herodotus’s treatment of Persia and the Persians
is a difficult task. The subject is not limited to a specific
logos but is ubiquitous in the Histories. One may define the
passage 1.131-40 as a kind of “Persian Logos”; nevertheless the
Persians, their customs (nomoi), and their history are the
backbone of the whole work. To deal with Persia and the Persians
means a consideration of the whole work, which is huge in its
dimensions. Furthermore the scientific community is still far
away from sharing a general consensus on fundamental questions
concerning the Histories and their value as historical source
(see in detail Bichler and Rollinger, 2000, pp. 161-65). There
is still debate on the crucial questions whether he primarily
used oral sources or also had a considerable amount of written
sources at his disposal. (Cf. Evans, 1980; Cobet, 1988; Rösler,
1991; Thomas, 1989, 1992, 1993; Tsakmakis, 1995; Johnson, 1994;
Ruschenbusch, 1995; Murray,