2 TIME OF HERODOTUS. LIFE AND will blow to the ground. Still certain points may be approximately fixed; and the interest attaching to the person of our author is such, that all would feel the present work incomplete, if it omitted to bring together the few facts which may be gathered, either from the writings of Herodotus himself or from other authorities of weight, concerning the individual history of the man with whose productions we are about to be engaged. The subjoined sketch is therefore given, not as sufficient to satisfy the curiosity concerning the author which the work of Herodotus naturally excites, but as preferable to absolute silence upon a subject of so much interest. The time at which Herodotus lived and wrote may be determined within certain limits from his History. On the one hand it appears that he conversed with at least one person who had been an eye-witness of some of the great events of the Persian war;2 on the other, that he outlived the commencement of the Peloponnesian struggle, and was acquainted with several circumstances which happened in the earlier portion of it. He must therefore have flourished in the fifth century B.C., and must have written portions of his History at least as late as B.C. 430. His birth would thus fall naturally into the earlier portion of the century, and he would have belonged to the generation which came next in succession to that of the conquerors of Salamis.5 2 See Book ix. ch. 16. 3 He mentions the Peloponnesian war by name in two places (vii. 137, ix. 73), and notices distinctly the following events in it : 1. The attack on Platea by the Thebans, with which it commenced (vii. 233). 2. The betrayal of Nicolaus and Aneristus, the Spartan ambassadors, and of Aristeus, the Cor. inthian, into the hands of the Athenians by Sitalces (vii. 137). 3. The ravaging of Attica by the Peloponnesians in one of the earlier years of the war (ix. 73). He may also covertly allude to the war in the following places: v. 93, and vi. 98. 4 Herodotus mentions one or two events which may have occurred about B.C. 425, as the desertion of Zopyrus, son of Megabyzus, to the Athenians (iii. 160); and a cruel deed committed by Amestris in her old age (vii. 114). He also speaks in one place (vi. 98) of the reign of Artaxerxes, who died B.C. 425, apparently as if it was over. He may therefore have given touches to his History as late as B.C. 424. The passages which have been imagined to point to a still later date (i. 130, iii. 15, and ix. 73) have been misunderstood or misapplied. Their true meaning is considered in the footnotes upon them. Many incidental notices confirm this. Herodotus conversed in Sparta with a certain Archias, a grandson of 5 WRITINGS. HIS BIRTH-PLACE, 3 These conclusions, drawn from the writings of Herodotus himself, are in close accordance with those more minute and definite statements which the earliest and best authorities make with regard to the exact time at which he was born. Dionysius of Halicarnassus, who as an antiquarian of great research and a fellow-countryman of our author, is entitled to be heard with special attention on such a point, tells us that his birth took place "a little before the Persian war.' "6 Pamphila, the only ancient writer who ventures to fix the exact year of his nativity, confirms Dionysius, and makes a statement from which it would appear that the birth of Herodotus preceded the invasion of Xerxes by four years. The value of this testimony has been called in question; but even those who do not regard it as authoritative admit, that it may well be adopted as in harmony with all that is known upon the subject, and "at least a near approximation to the truth."8 It may be concluded therefore that Herodotus was born in or about the year B.C. 484. Concerning the birth-place of the historian no reasonable doubt has ever been entertained either in ancient or modern times. The Pseudo-Plutarch indeed, in the tract wherein he has raked together every charge that malice and folly combined could contrive against our author, intimates a suspicion that he had falsely claimed the honour of having Halicarnassus an Archias who fell in Samos about B.C. 525 (iii. 55). He was also acquainted with a steward of Ariapeithes, the Scythian king, who was a contemporary of Sitalces, the ally of Athens in the year B.C. 430. He travelled in Egypt later than B.C. 462 (iii. 12). * Judicium de Thucyd. (c. 5, vol. vi. p. 820). The words used are- -'Hpóδοτος γενόμενος ὀλίγῳ πρότερον τῶν Περσικών. 7 Ap. Aul. Gell. Noct. Attic. xv. 23. "Hellanicus initio belli Peloponnesiaci fuisse quinque et sexaginta annos natus videtur; Herodotus tres et quinquaginta; Thucydides quadraginta." (See Müller, Fragm. Hist. Gr. vol. iii. p. 521.) See Mure, p. 254. Pamphila seems spoken of somewhat too slightingly when she is called " an obscure female writer of the Roman period." The frequent quotation of her writings by Aulus Gellius and Diogenes Laertius is a proof that she was far from obscure. Photius, too, whose extensive reading adds a value to his criticism, speaks favourably of her work, and especially as containing "several necessary points of historical information.” (τῶν ἱστορικῶν οὐκ ὀλίγα ἀναγκαῖα. Bibl. Cod. 175, p. 389.) That Pamphila was a careful and laborious student of history seems certain from her having made an Epitome of Ctesias (see Suidas). 4 PARENTS AND FAMILY. LIFE AND for his birth-place. But Plutarch himself is a witness against the writer who has filched his name,1 and his testimony is confirmed by Dionysius,2 by Strabo,8 by Lucian, and by Suidas.5 The testimony of Herodotus, which would of itself be conclusive were it certain, is rendered doubtful by the quotation of Aristotle, which substitutes at the commencement of the History the word "Thurian" for "Halicarnassian."6 Apart, however, from this, the all but universal testimony of ancient writers, the harmony of their witness with the attention given to Halicarnassus and its affairs in the History, and the epitaph which appears to have been engraved upon the historian's tomb at Thurium,7 form a body of proof the weight of which is irresistible. Of the parents and family of Herodotus but little can be said to be known. We are here reduced almost entirely to the authority of Suidas, a learned but not very careful compiler of the eleventh century, to whose unconfirmed assertions the least possible weight must be considered to attach. He tells us in the brief sketch which he has left of our author, that he was born of "illustrious" parents in the city of Halicarnassus, his father's name being Lyxes, and his mother's, Dryo, or Rhoeo; that he had a brother Theodore; and that he was cousin or nephew of Panyasis, the epic poet. To the last of these statements very little credit is due, since Suidas confesses that his authorities were not agreed through which of the parents of Herodotus the connexion was to be traced,10 did not indeed mention Halicarnassus, but implied it by speaking of the historian as sprung from a Dorian land ”Δωριέων πάτρης βλαστόντ ̓ ἄπο. 8 Ηρόδοτος, Λύξου καὶ Δρυοῦς, Αλικαρ νασσεύς, τῶν ἐπιφανῶν, καὶ ἀδελφὸν ἐσχηκώς Θεόδωρον. Suidas ad voc. Ἡρόδοτος. 9 See Suidas ad voc. Пavbaσis. 10 Some said that the father of Panyasis, whom they called Polyarchus, was brother to Lyxes, the father of Herodotus; others that Rhoeo, our author's mother, was the epic poet's sister. (Suid. 1. s. c.) WRITINGS. RELATIONS IN THE ISLE OF CHIOS. 5 and the temptation to create such a relationship must have been great to the writers of fictitious letters and biographies under the empire. But the name of his father is confirmed by the epitaph preserved in Stephen,1 and the station of his parents by the indications of wealth which the high education of our author, and his abundant means for frequent and distant travel, manifestly furnish. The other statements of Suidas acquire, by their connexion with these, some degree of credibility; and the very obscurity and unimportance of the names may induce us to accept them as real, since no motive can be assigned for their invention. Herodotus may therefore be regarded as the son of Lyxes and Rhoeo, persons of good means and station in the city of Halicarnassus. That he had a brother Theodore is also probable. 4 2 It has been thought that Herodotus must have had relations of rank and importance settled in the island of Chios.8 In speaking of an embassy sent by a portion of the Chians to the Greeks about the time of the battle of Salamis, he mentions, without any apparent necessity, and with special emphasis, a single name-that of a certain "Herodotus, the son of Basileides." This man, it is supposed, must have been a relative, whom family affection or family pride induced the historian to commemorate; and if so, it is certain from his position as one of the chiefs of a conspiracy, and afterwards as ambassador from his countrymen, that he must have been a personage of distinction-a conclusion which is confirmed by the way in which Herodotus introduces 1 The epitaph, which Brunck has placed in the third volume of his Analecta (Epig. 533, p. 263), consists of four lines of elegiac verse, and runs as follows: Ηρόδοτον Δύξεω κρύπτει κόνις ἥδε θανόντα, 2 It seems certain that the double form of the name arises from a corruption of the text of Suidas. Bähr (Comment. de Vitâ et Scriptis Herod. § 2) 6 EDUCATION. LIFE AND his name, as if he were previously not unknown to his readers.5 This is a point, however, of minor consequence, since it is not needed to prove what is really important-the wealth and consideration of the family to which our author belonged. 6 The education of Herodotus is to be judged of from his work. No particulars of it have come down to us. Indeed, the whole subject of Greek education before the first appearance of the Sophists is involved in a good deal of obscurity. That the three standard branches of instruction recognised among the Athenians of the time of Socrates-grammar, gymnastic training, and music-were regarded throughout all Greece, and from a very early date, as the essential elements of a liberal education is likely enough; but it can scarcely be said to have been demonstrated. Herodotus, it may, how ever, be supposed, followed the course common in later times. -attended the grammar-school where he learnt to read and write, frequented the palæstra where he went through the exercises, and received instruction from the professional harper or flute-player, who conveyed to him the rudiments of music. But these things formed a very slight part of that education, which was necessary to place a Greek of the upper ranks on a level, intellectually, with those who in Athens and elsewhere gave the tone to society, and were regarded as finished gentlemen. A knowledge of literature, and especially of poetry-above all an intimate acquaintance with the classic writings of Homer, was the one great requisite; to which 5 Τῶν καὶ Ἡρόδοτος ὁ Βασιληΐδεω v. When a new character is introduced, and Herodotus does not consider him already known, he commonly omits the article. (See vi. 127, where none of the suitors of Agarista have the article except Megacles, the son of Alemæon.) 6 Some writers have maintained that in Dorian states the first branch (ypáμμara) was wholly, or almost wholly, omitted (Müller, Dorians, vol. ii. p. 328, E. T.; Grote's Hist. of Greece, vol. ii. p. 526). But Colonel Mure has shown that this imputation is unfounded (Remarks on two Appendices to Grote's History, p. 1 et seqq.). The three branches are recognized by Ephorus as obtaining from an early time in Crete (Fr. 64, Müller, vol. i. p. 251), and Plato seems to regard them as universally agreed upon (Alcib. i. p. 106 E; Amat. p. 132; Theag. p. 122; Protag. pp. 325 E and 326 A.B). 7 See Plat. Rep. Books ii. and iii., Protag. 1. s. c. |