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

LECT. II

HERODOTUS

37

(431-0 B.c.'). Into this framework we have to
fit his travels, which included the coasts of the
Euxine, Babylon, Phoenicia, Egypt, and probably
Cyrene. It is not necessary to discuss the disputed subject of the chronology of his journeys.
I need only say that his most important journeys,
those to Babylonia and Egypt, were probably
undertaken in the later period of his life, while
he was a citizen of Thurii. The years which
elapsed between his banishment from his native
city and his departure for his new home seem to
have been spent in Greece, perhaps chiefly at
Athens, and to have been devoted, as we shall
see, to investigating and composing the story of
the invasion of Xerxes. Though he may naturally
have visited Athens again, on his way to or from
the East, there is no evidence to entitle us to
presume, as some have thought, that he deserted
Thurii permanently and dwelled at Athens during
the last years of his life.2
The argument of his history is a narrative of
the relations between the Greeks and the oriental
powers from the accession of Croesus to the
capture of Sestos in 478 B.c.-a "modern" history
in the fullest sense of the term. The division into
nine Books is not due to the author himself, for
1 There are passages which cannot have been written before 431-0
B.C. vii. 233 (cp. Thucydides ii. 2) and ix. 73 (cp. Thuc. ii. 23) imply 431
B.C.; vii. 137 (cp. Thuc. ii. 67) implies 430 B.c. Cp. also iii. 160; and v. 77.
The reference to Artaxerxes in vi. 98 does not imply that the words were
written after his death (425 B.C.); cp. Macan's note ad loc.
2 Compare the pertinent remarks of Wachsmuth, Rheinisclies Museum,
lvi. 215-8 (1901).