Herodotus, the "father of history," is possibly the most famous historian of all-and perhaps the most maligned, despite his clear warning at the start of his book that he was merely recording, not vouchsafing, those things that he had not seen himself. As a result, his accounts are often dismissed, but as Alfred Church's masterful retelling shows, this is an unjust assumption. Starting with the reign of King Croesus of Lydia (ca. 560 BC),...