Aubrey de Sélincourt was an English writer, classical scholar, and translator. He was also a keen sailor. He had over 24 books credited to his authorship, but is chiefly remembered for his translations—all for Penguin Classics—of Herodotus' The Histories (1954), Arrian's Life of Alexander the Great (1958), Livy's The Early History of Rome, and The War with Hannibal.

Herodotus was a Greek historian and geographer from the Greek city of Halicarnassus, part of the Persian Empire and a later citizen of Thurii in modern Calabria, Italy. He is known for having written the Histories – a detailed account of the Greco-Persian Wars. Herodotus was the first writer to perform systematic investigation of historical events. He has been described as "The Father of History", a title conferred on him by the ancient Roman orator Cicero.