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

!I

HERODOTUS

41

geography, and were afterwards incorporated in
his history. There is nothing that compels us to
adopt a hypothesis of this kind. Association with
geography was a characteristic of the early
historical literature of the Greeks, and these
excursus in Herodotus attest the influence of the
Hecataean school, and were natural in the work
of a historian who was himself a traveller. And
it is worth observing that when he was writing,
both Egypt and Scythia, the subjects of his
longest historico-geographical digressions, had a
particular practical interest for the Athenians;
and of the Greek public it was unquestionably
the Athenians to whom the historian designed
his work pre-eminently to appeal. I need only
remind you of the Athenian adventure in Egypt
in the middle of the fifth century and of the
voyage of Pericles in the Euxine Sea. It has
even been conjectured that this Periclean expedition (444 B.c.) was the occasion of the historian's
visit to the Pontic regions. However this may
be, it is not insignificant, in judging these digressions, that Egypt and Scythia possessed, at the
time Herodotus wrote, an interest of a political
kind, subordinate indeed to that of Persia, but
distinctly actual.
It is also to be noted that the digressions in
general had an artistic justification. They are an
epic feature, deliberately designed; one of the
epic notes of the work. Homer was the literary
I He says expressly that 7rpoaO2jKac are a feature of his work, iv. 30.