Hill, Aaron, 1685-1750

A versatile but only moderately successful playwright, theater manager, and essayist, Hill was one of Alexander Pope’s targets in The Dunciad. As a business man, Hill not only managed the Drury Lane and the Queen's Theatre in the Haymarket for brief periods, but was involved in concerns as varied as lumber for Navy ships, potash production, beech nut oil, winemaking, and more. As an author, he began with A full and just Account of the Present State of the Ottoman Empire (1709), the account of his impromptu solo journey as a teenager from Britain to his uncle's ambassadorial post in Turkey.

Herodotus

Living from roughly 484-420 B.C.E., Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian and geographer, his most notable work being the Histories, an expansive account of the Greco-Persian Wars. Much like Homer, his works are known for their storytelling quality. Although the Histories contain many fantastical elements, much of the narrative's content has been found to be credible and accurate. As the creator of the first cohesive and comprehensive account of such an extensive topic, Herodotus has been deemed "The Father of History."