The Twitter Herodotus

1.1 Herodotus here! Writing so we don't forget stuff, esp. the Persian Wars. The Persians say the Phoenicians started it by kidnapping Io.  [Note: This tweet actually combines the proem and the first section of the History.]

1.2 Some Greeks then kidnapped Europa from Phoenicia & Medea from Colchis. They refused to return Medea when her father, the king, demanded.

1.3 A generation later, Alexander/Paris carried off Helen. The Greeks demanded her back but the Trojans refused, citing the Medea business.

1.4 The Greeks overreacted to Helen's abduction and invaded Asia, then destroyed Troy. Thus began Persian enmity toward the Greeks.

1.5 The Phoenicians say Io went willingly. *I'll* say who began it & I'll mention cities big & small, for I know GOOD FORTUNE IS INCONSTANT.

1.6 Croesus of Lydia, who ruled all the peoples west of the Halys River, was the 1st barbarian to subject Greeks to the payment of tribute.

1.7 The Lydian kingship passed from the Heraclidae to the Mermnadae, Croesus' family, as I'll explain. The last Heraclid king was Candaules.

1.8 Candaules fell in love w/his own wife & praised her beauty to his bodyguard Gyges, whom he bid view the queen naked. Gyges begged off.

1.9 But Candaules insisted and told his plan: Gyges would hide behind the door and watch her undress before bed, then he'd slip out unseen.

1.10 Gyges reluctantly obeyed. He hid, watched & left, but she saw him. At once she knew what Candaules had done & she contemplated revenge.