What is history?

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I have found some textual evidence from the past about what history is.

These are excerpts from Herodotus's History and from Aristotle's Poetics and Rhetoric.

Herodotus's History, Proem:

"This is the display of the history of Herodotus of Halicarnassus, so that things done by man not be forgotten in time, and that great and marvelous deeds--some displayed by the Hellenes, some by the barbarians--not lose their glory, including among others what was the cause of their waging war on each other."

Herodotus states what the purpose of history is. One displays history so that deeds are not forgotten, so that deeds do not lose glory, and so that the cause of war can be displayed.

Aristotle's Poetics, 9:

"The difference between a historian and a poet is not that one writes in prose and the other in verse—indeed the writings of Herodotus could be put into verse and they would not be one whit less history, whether written in metre or not. The real difference is this, that one tells what happened and the other what could happen. For this reason poetry is something more philosophic and more serious than history, because poetry is more of universals, whereas history is of particulars. By a 'universal' I mean the sort of thing that a certain type of man will do or say either probably or necessarily. A 'particular' is what Alcibiades did or what was done to him. "

History writes about the particulars of the past, without any reference to them being species of a universal class character. It seems that the sheer quantity, sequence, and simultaneity of events makes it difficult to find universals in particular actions.

Aristotle's Poetics, 23  

"It must not be such as we normally find in history, where what is required is an imitation not of a single piece of action but of a single period of time, showing all that within the period befell one or more persons, events that have a haphazard relation to each other. For just as the battle of Salamis occurred at the same time as the Carthaginian battle in Sicily, but they do not converge to the same result3 [3 - Gelo's defeat of the Carthaginians in Sicily in 480 B.C. took place, according to Herodotus, on the same day as the battle of Salamis.] ; so, too, in any sequence of time one event may follow another and yet they may not issue in any one result."

History is a record of all of the events within a time, which do not bear any unified causal relation to one another.

Aristotle's Rhetoric, 1.4.8:

"Accordingly, the orator who is going to give advice on ways and means should be acquainted with the nature and extent of the State resources, so that if any is omitted it may be added, and if any is insufficient, it may be increased. Further, he should know all the expenses of the State, that if any is superfluous, it may be removed, or, if too great, may be curtailed. For men become wealthier, not only by adding to what they already possess, but also by cutting down expenses. Of these things it is not only possible to acquire a general view from individual experience, but in view of advising concerning them it is further necessary to be inquisitive [historikon] about what has been discovered among others."

[1.4.13]

"It is clear, therefore, that for legislation books of travel are useful, since they help us to understand the laws of other nations, and for political debates, historical works are useful. All these things, however, belong to Politics and not to Rhetoric."

History is for the sake of deliberative oratory in political debates about what should be done.