CHAP. I. INTROD. quaintance with the west was more extended; and in particular he mentions the Ligurians, who at that time probably occupied the whole southern coasts of Europe beyond Italy and as far as Spain. He notices the island Erytheia at the influx of the ocean into the Mediterranean, and gives to the Nile, which Homer calls the Aegyptus, its proper designation. Aeschylus. In the succeeding age are to be found the same general views. The circumfluent ocean appears in Aeschylus. In the south we find a black nation, and a river called the Aethiops, which may perhaps answer to the Niger. Northward we get as far as the Cimmerians of the Crimea; and far above them, the Arimaspi, the Griffins, and the Gorgons fill up Pindar. the back-ground of the picture. Pindar about the same time shows us that Sicily and the neighbouring coasts of Italy were known and civilized. He represents Aetna as a volcano, and names the Pillars of Heracles at the entrance to the Mediterranean, and the Hyperboreans in the distant north. Scylax of Hecatacus of Miletus. The works of these authors, as we have already seen, were known to Herodotus. He was also acquainted with the survey of the river Indus conducted by Scylax of Caryanda at the command of Darius; together with the works of a few minor writers, of which nothing has been preserved beyond a few fragments. 1 The most celebrated geographer, however, who preceded Herodotus was Hecataeus of Miletus. Our author frequently corrects his statements, and by so doing recognises him as the most important of his predecessors. Hecataeus wrote "Travels round the Earth," by which a description of the Mediterranean Sea, and of southern Asia as far as India, was understood. He also improved and completed the map of the earth sketched by Anaximander; 2 and it was 1 iv. 44. See also the account of the river Indus in the body of the present volume. 66 2 Anaximander was also a native of Miletus, and wrote his little work, upon nature," in B. C. 547, when he was 64 years old, which may be said to be the earliest philosophical work in the Greek language. He possessed a gnomon, or sun dial, which he had doubtless obtained from CHAP. I. probably this map which Aristagoras carried to INTROD. Sparta before the Ionian revolt, and upon which he showed king Cleomenes the countries, rivers, and royal stations along the great highway between Sardis and Susa.1 The various points in which the geography of Hecataeus' comes in contact with that of Herodotus will be found further discussed in the body of the work.3 of philoso over by He Such then was the state of geographical know- Conjectures ledge prior to the time of Herodotus. The theories phers passed and conjectures of philosophers were but scarcely rodotus. noticed by a traveller who based all his notions and opinions upon personal experience and observation. Herodotus wrote for the great body of the people, and not for the schools, and it is this fact, probably, Babylon, and made observations at Sparta, by which he determined exactly the solstices and equinoxes, and calculated the obliquity of the ecliptic. According to Eratosthenes, he was the first who attempted to draw a map, in which his object probably was rather to make a mathematical division of the whole earth, than to lay down the forms of the different countries composing it. Müller, Lit. of Greece. 1 v. 49. 2 A map of the extent of the geographical knowledge possessed by Hecataeus is inserted by Klausen in his edition of the fragments of Hecataeus, and copied with some modifications by Mure in the 4th vol. of his Lan. and Lit. of Ancient Greece. It however contains exceedingly few historical names, and scarcely anything that will illustrate the geography of Herodotus. 3 Herodotus frequently shows himself inclined to quarrel with Hecataeus. He sneers at his genealogy of sixteen ancestors, of which the sixteenth was a god (ii. 143); at his describing the earth "round as if from a turner's lathe” (iv. 36); at his making the Nile to flow from the river Ocean (ii. 23), and the latter to flow round the earth (iv. 36); and also quaintly jests with his predecessor's account of the Hyperboreans (Ibid.), and of the man who carried an arrow round the earth, without eating. On the other hand, Herodotus represents the political character of Hecataeus in a very favourable light, as a sagacious councillor, an honest patriot, and a man of action, especially free from the superstitions of the age. In the council convened by Aristagoras to concert measures for the Ionian revolt, Hecataeus alone discountenanced the project on the very simple ground of the overwhelming power of the Persian empire (v. 36). Finding his remonstrances useless, he proposed to seize the treasures in the temple of Apollo at Branchidae as the best means of replenishing the military chest. This proposal was also rejected. Subsequently he advised Aristagoras to fortify the isle of Leros as a central military and naval station, but this also was overruled. An inscription however has been recently discovered in the island, by which Hecataeus, whether the historian or some of his descendants, is specially honoured as a founder or benefactor by the Lerians. Cf. Mure, Lan. and Lit. of Anc. Greece, Book iv. ch. iii. § 2. CHAP. I. INTROD. which gave rise to the story of his reciting his history at Olympia. Unlike Thales and his successors, he made no effort to discover the origin and principle of the universe, and even his inquiries respecting the causes and varieties of climate are characterized by the most childlike simplicity, which must even have appeared ridiculous in the eyes of his more scientific contemporaries. In short, he evidently indulged in no such experiments or laborious investigations into the inner secrets of nature, as we may suppose to have been carried out by the Chaldees of Babylon, or Rabbinical sages of the Jewish schools, but contented himself with the most superficial glances at the external world around him. These however belong to the next chapter. Review of his old age. At last we contemplate Herodotus in fulness of years and all his labours completed, settled in calm retirement in Thurium on the Gulf of Tarentum. He was doubtless held in the highest respect by all the citizens, as one of the fathers of the colony. Here he had worked up his collected materials, and some of the illustrations of his descriptions are borrowed from the neighbouring localities.' His life extended considerably into the Peloponnesian war, and the old man must have seen his father-land exhausting itself in internal quarrels. But the records of these find no place in his history. The glorious events of his early youth, and the marvellous results of his travels, filled his capacious memory, and alone occupied his attention. His eye could follow the sun in its daily course from the far east to the legendary west, and even in its supposed winter progress over the arid sands of Aethiopia. At the same time the mysterious and distant nations upon which it shone, the steppes of Scythia, the table-lands of Asia, the oases of Africa, the Caspian and Euxine Seas, and all the vast territories between the Nile and the Tanais, the Indus and the Pillars of Heracles, all passed before his mental vision like a map of wonders, a map of old memories and youthful 1 iv. 15, 99. enterprise. Here then we might pause for a mo- INTROD. ment, and imagine ourselves sitting at the feet of CHAP. I. the lively traveller and impressive moralist; and in this happy mood will we endeavour to appreciate, as far as in us lies, the immortal encyclopædia of the wise old Thurian. CHAPTER II. INTROD. THE WORLD AND ITS DIVISIONS. The winds considered as fundamental powers of nature.-Regarded as peculiar properties of the soil.-Heat and cold at different periods of the day referred to the sun.-General simplicity of Herodotus's ideas.Early attempts to describe the earth's circumference.--Opinions of Herodotus upon the subject.-Extent of his knowledge.-Divisions of the earth. Separation of Europe and Asia.-Separation of Asia and Libya. --Seas bounding the earth's extremities.-Mediterranean.-Atlantic.Erythraean.-Voyages of Sesostris and Sataspes. HERODOTUS Considered the fundamental powers of CHAP. II. nature to lie in the winds, which blew from different The winds quarters. The earth and the heaven above it fall considered into two divisions, which are ruled by two great as fundamental powers of nature. counter-forces, heat and cold, the fierce Boreas and the voluptuous Notos.' It was not any distance from the sun, but the north and easterly winds, which radiated cold and frost. On the other hand, it was the south wind from Aethiopia, and not at all the sun, which radiated heat. The north winds were the most important and powerful. In the winter they were called the Borean, in the summer the Etesian.2 They decided the ecliptic. During the summer the sun stood in the centre of the heavens. As winter approached it was driven into the south by the blasts of Boreas; and there it remained until the mild Etesian winds of returning summer again permitted it to resume its central position. The southern half of the world was thus especially favoured, for the sun was never driven into the northern or upper division. During the mild season of summer, and whilst the sun occupied the centre of the heavens, it drew up the water from the various rivers, and bore away in its wintry journey into the south. Here it 1 ii. 26. Cf. 24, 25. 2 vi. 140; vii. 169. |