Herodotus (ca. 484-425 BCE), the paradigmatic travel writer of antiquity, was born in Halicarnassus, the modern Turkish city of Bodrum. His investigations into other countries and cultures, the Histories, is the oldest work of Greek prose to survive intact. M. D. Usher is the Lyman-Roberts Professor of Classical Languages and Literature at the University of Vermont. His previous books include How to Be a Farmer, How to Say No, and How to Care about Animals (all Princeton).