Herodotus did not end his Histories with the battle of Salamis, but continued through until 479 BC and the siege of Sestos. The Athenians eventually took the town and "went in pursuit of the fugitives (IX, 118)" that had escaped. Those who had left the Persian town were eventually caught and sacrificed. Among them was Artayctes, who was taken "to the spit of land where Xerxes' bridge had been..and there they nailed him to a plank and hung him up (IX, 121)." After taking the treasures from the town and killing the people, the Greeks "set sail for Greece with. . . the cables of the bridges, which the Athenians proposed to dedicate as an offering in their temples. And that was all that happened during the course of the year (IX,121)."
Those who study the Persian Wars and the works of Herodotus all agree that he stopped at the right time. Andrew Robert Burn, a scholar of the wars, thinks "that Herodotos' choice of a stopping point is artistic. . . it is also not unscientific, in that, with the years after 479 [BC], new themes appear: the emergence of Athens as the leading power in Greece. . . and Athens' dealings with the liberated states which looked to her as a leader (554)." Herodotus covers the beginning of the Golden Age of Athens. He leaves the stories of her future accomplishments to those who come after him. The father of history left the story of the first modern civilization as a legacy for others to follow.