PREFACE

TO THE THIRD EDITION.

FOR the present Edition it has been once more found necessary, from the progress made in cuneiform discovery and decipherment, to subject Essays VI. VII. and VIII. of Vol. I. to a searching revision, which has resulted in considerable alteration, and (it is hoped) improvement. It is scarcely necessary to apologize for changes rendered necessary by the advances made in a study, which was in its infancy when the present work was originally composed and published. Where the materials on which history is based increase, history must of necessity be rewritten; and it is to be expected that for many years to come those who sketch, or write, the histories of Babylonia and Assyria, will have from time to time to review their work and bring it into accordance with the most recent discoveries. In revising his account of the Babylonian and Assyrian Monarchies, the author has received much assistance from Mr. George Smith, of the British Museum, to whom he desires to make hereby sincere and grateful acknowledgment.

Oxford, December, 1874.

PREFACE

TO THE FIRST EDITION.

SEVEN years have elapsed since this work was first promised to the public. It was then stated that its object would be at once to present the English reader with a correct yet free translation, and to collect and methodize for the student the chief illustrations of the author, which modern learning and research had up to that time accumulated. The promise thus made might without much difficulty have been redeemed within the space of two or three years. Parallel, however, with the progress of the work, which was commenced at once, a series of fresh discoveries continued for several years to be made-more especially on points connected with the ethnography of the East, and the history, geography, and religion of Babylonia and Assyria-the results of which it seemed desirable to incorporate, at whatever cost of time and labour. Great portions of the present volume had thus, from time to time, to be rewritten. This circumstance, and the unavoidable absence of Sir Henry Rawlinson from England during three years out of the seven, will, it is hoped, be deemed sufficient apology for the delay that has occurred in the publication.

Some apology may also seem to be required for the project of a new translation. When this work was designed, Herodotus already existed in our language in five or six different versions. Besides literal translations intended merely for the use of students, Littlebury in 1737, Beloe in 1791, and Mr. Isaac Taylor in 1829, had given "the Father of History" an English dress designed to recommend him to the general reader. The defects of the two former of these worksdefects arising in part from the low state of Greek scholar

PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

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ship at the time when they were written, in part from the incompetency of the writers-precluded of necessity their adoption, even as the basis of a new English Herodotus. The translation of Mr. Isaac Taylor is of a higher order, and had it been more accurate, would have left little to desiderate. The present translator was not, however, aware of its existence until after he had completed his task, or he would have been inclined, if permitted, to have adopted, with certain changes, Mr. Taylor's version. It is hoped that the public may derive some degree of advantage from this redundancy of labour in the same field, and may find the present work a more exact, if not a more spirited, representation of the Greek author.

There are, however, one or two respects in which the present translation does not lay claim to strict accuracy. Occasional passages offensive to modern delicacy have been retrenched, and others have been modified by the alteration of a few phrases. In the orthography of names, moreover, and in the rendering of the appellations of the Greek deities, the Latinized forms, with which our ear is most familiar, have been adopted in preference to the closer and more literal representation of the words, which has recently obtained the sanction of some very eminent writers. In a work intended

for general reading, it was thought that unfamiliar forms were to be eschewed; and that accuracy in such matters, although perhaps more scholar-like, would be dearly purchased at the expense of harshness and repulsiveness.

It has not been considered desirable to encumber the text with a great multitude of foot-notes. The principal lines of inquiry opened up by the historian have been followed out in "Essays," which are placed separately at the end of the several "Books" into which the history is divided. In the running comment upon the text which the foot-notes furnish, while it is hoped that no really important illustration of the narrative of Herodotus from classical writers of authority has been omitted, the main endeavour has been to confine such comment within reasonable compass, and to avoid the mistake

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PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.

into which Larcher and Bähr have fallen, of overlaying the text with the commentary. If the principle here indicated is anywhere infringed, it will be found that the infringement arises from a press of modern matter not previously brought to bear upon the author, and of a character which seemed to require juxtaposition with his statements.

The Editor cannot lay this instalment of his work before the public without at once recording his obligations to the kindness of several friends. His grateful acknowledgments

are due to the Rector and Fellows of Exeter College for the free use of their valuable library; to Dr. Bandinel, librarian of the Bodleian, and the Rev. H. O. Coxe, sub-librarian of the same, for much attention and courtesy; to Professor Lassen, of Bonn, for kind directions as to German sources of illustration; to Dr. Scott, Master of Balliol, for assistance on difficult points of scholarship; and to Professor Max Müller, of this University, for many useful hints upon subjects connected with ethnology and comparative philology. Chiefly, however, he has to thank his two colleagues, Sir Henry Rawlinson and Sir Gardner Wilkinson, for their invaluable assistance. The share which these writers have taken in the work is very insufficiently represented by the attachment of their initials to the notes and essays actually contributed by them. Sir Henry Rawlinson especially has exercised a general supervision over the Oriental portion of the comment; and although he is, of course, not to be regarded as responsible for any statements but those to which his initials are affixed, he has, in fact, lent his aid throughout in all that concerns the geography, ethnography, and history of the Eastern nations. It was the promise of this assistance which alone emboldened the Editor to undertake a work of such pretension as the full illustration from the best sources, ancient and modern, of so discursive a writer as Herodotus. It will be, he feels, the advantage derived from the free bestowal of the assistance which will lend to the work itself its principal and most permanent interest.

Oxford, January 1st, 1858.