Wikipedia:
"The Histories of Herodotus is considered the founding work of history in Western literature."
"Written around 430 BC in the Ionic dialect of classical Greek, The Histories serves as a record of the ancient traditions, politics, geography, and clashes of various cultures that were known in Greece, Western Asia and Northern Africa at that time."
"The Histories also stands as one of the earliest accounts of the rise of the Persian Empire, as well as the events and causes of the Greco-Persian Wars between the Persian Empire and the Greek city-states in the 5th century BC."
Today we cover Book 1, Chapters 45-64, which is where the "History of Lydia and its kings; the story of Croesus" shades into the "History of the Medes and Persians; the early life of Cyrus."
I am reading from this edition.
Major subjects of the Histories include:
The Archaic Greek world and the role it played in the prelude to the Greco-Persian wars, beginning with the Kingdom of Lydia in Anatolia and its capital at Sardis.
The animals, monsters, geography, and cultures of the earth.
The Rise of the Persian Empire.
The development of Athens, Sparta, Corinth, and other Greek states.
The Greco-Persian Wars.
Reading Note: Don't regard my pronunciations as canonical
Cultural Note: The Medes are the people who inhabit the region of Media, mostly (but not always) part of and subject to the Persian Empire