The ancient Greek historians (Harvard lectures) by J. B. Bury.

HELLANICUS

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method of reckoning. The years of magistrates
or priests are not only clumsy, but convey
no chronological idea. For it is to be observed
that when dates are expressed by cardinal numbers
proceeding from a fixed year, not only is calculation
simplified, but the numbers present to the mental
vision a clear historical perspective.
But recognising the defects both in the mechanism and in the methods of Hellanicus, who
attempted the impossible, we must give him credit
for having framed the ideal of a chronological
system which should embrace all the known facts
of history; and if he established many erroneous
dates, it is probable that he also rescued some
that were correct.
~ 5. Summary
To sum up. (1) The historical study of their
past by the Greeks arose out of the epic tradition
and was a continuation of the work of the later
epic poets. The tradition of the Homeric and
Hesiodic poets maintained its control to the end.
What we would designate as the post-mythical
or historical period overlapped by means of genealogies with the mythical period; the existing
families of Greece were connected in line of
blood with the heroes and thereby with the gods.
The genealogical principle, lying at the base of
their historical reconstruction, hindered the Greeks
from drawing a hard and fast line between the
mythical and the historical age. The historians
D