Editorial standards
Who writes this, and how
Histia is written and published by William Souef, the founder of the Histia app. The history library is researched from the published historical record, and every historical article ends with a list of sources you can click and check yourself. Practical guides cite the research or official product information behind claims that need evidence. Where historians disagree, the article says so instead of picking a tidy answer.
William Souef
Founder and editor of Histia. I build the app, choose the topics, and write and edit everything published here. If something on this site is wrong, it is my responsibility to fix it.
How these articles are researched
Every article starts from the same question a reader typed into a search engine, and tries to answer it in the first paragraph rather than after a thousand words of preamble. The research process is deliberately unglamorous:
- Establish the settled facts. Dates, names, numbers, and sequences are taken from reference works, museum and archive material, and academic summaries — not from other blog posts.
- Go to primary sources where they exist and are accessible. For ancient topics that means the surviving classical authors (Plutarch, Suetonius, Strabo) through open scholarly libraries; for modern topics, national archives and official records.
- Name the disagreement. Where the evidence genuinely does not settle a question — how Cleopatra died, what killed Alexander, how the pyramid ramps worked — the article states the competing theories and says which is currently favoured, rather than inventing certainty.
- Publish the sources. Every historical article ends with the references used, linked directly, so a reader can verify important claims without taking our word for them. Guides also cite research or official product material when their claims depend on it.
How we use AI — and where we don't
We think you should know this rather than guess it. AI tools are used in producing Histia: in the app, narration is synthesised and some visuals are AI-generated; on this site, AI assists with drafting and structuring. What AI does not do is decide what is true. Factual claims, dates, and figures are checked against the sources listed on the page. Source links are opened and checked when an article is published or meaningfully updated, although external pages can later move or disappear.
The app itself carries a visible disclaimer stating that educational material may be dramatised or computer-generated and may contain inaccuracies or unintended biases. Histia's editorial policy goes a step further: when a factual claim matters, readers should check the primary or official record where one is available.
Corrections
History writing gets things wrong, and the honest response is to fix it in public. If you find an error — a wrong date, a misattributed quote, a claim the evidence does not support — please report it. Corrections are made to the article and the "Updated" date at the top of the page is revised so you can see it changed.
Report an error or ask a question: prodwilliamsouef@gmail.com
Public correction log
No corrections have been logged yet. When a factual correction is made, this section will name the page, the corrected claim, the date, and the source used. Typographic changes that do not alter meaning are not listed as factual corrections.
What Histia is
Histia is a free iOS app that turns world history into five-minute stories you can listen to, read, or watch in cinematic mode, with daily facts, quick quizzes, and an interactive map whose current repository range runs from 3000 BCE through 2025. It is built for people who want to learn something real in the gaps of a busy day. Many articles on this site were written as companions to Histia stories. Starting August 18, 2026, new story-specific recommendations are published only after the story has been checked in the public App Store version; older recommendations are being backfilled under the same verification process.