Archibald Henry Sayce (1845–1933) was an influential orientalist and philologist. He was a pioneering Assyriologist and published widely on the history, religion, and literature of the Babylonian and Assyrian peoples. In 1891 he became Professor of Assyriology at Oxford University. The Ancient Empires of the East (1883) is Sayce's edition, 'with Notes, Introductions and Appendices', of the first three books of The Histories by the fifth-century Greek historian Herodotus, which focus on Egypt and Persia. In his preface Sayce states that since the field of oriental studies is 'growing day by day' it is the aim of his edition to 'take stock of our existing knowledge' and 'see exactly what is the point to which our researches have brought us'. Although his translation of Herodotus was criticised on publication on account of inaccuracies, Sayce's reputation as a great populariser of oriental philology, history and culture remained intact.
