ABSTRACT
Thucydides is universally acknowledged as the founder of historiography, the science of history. At the same time, Herodotus is known as the father of history. The two writers present two clearly distinct attitudes about history. Herodotus entertains his reader with anecdotes that focus upon a story to the detriment of factual documentation. Thucydides, by contrast, aims at exactness by including the texts of speeches for example, relies more on description, and analyzes history by attributing causes to events. Scientifically minded historians have preferred the more empirically concerned Thucydides.
