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

HECATAEUS

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lived in the early part of the sixth century, contemporary with Anaximander and Pherecydes of
Syros, and wrote a book on the Origins of Miletus
and other Ionian cities, a work which was notable
only because it was written in prose, and not
differing in treatment or character from epics like
the Corinthiaca and Phoronis. This is perhaps the
best we can do for the reputation of Cadmus; he
was a very early prose writer or logographer, but
there is no reason to suppose that he was more of
a historian than Eumelus or Eugammon. The
claim of Hecataeus to be the founder of history
cannot be disputed in his favour.
A logographer, as you know, means a writer of
prose, not specially a historian.
The early historical literature of the Greeks had
no distinctive name. It formed part of the general
prose literature which was then springing up in Ionia
and which included philosophical and scientific
works, and, for instance, the fables of Aesop. In
their nomenclature, the Greeks regarded only the
nomine. The passages of Strabo and Pliny show that the creation of
prose was variously ascribed to Cadmus and Pherecydes (of Syros). This
was, of course, the result of Alexandrine investigation. From Dionysius
we learn that an extant work which bore the name of Cadmus was
strongly suspected of being a fabrication. We may take it for granted
that it was spurious, but it seems highly probable that its subject was
that of the genuine work which had long since perished. Hence, I
think, we may pretty securely accept the information of Suidas (whether
derived from the pseudo-Cadmus or from Alexandrine sources) that
Cadmus composed KriaTLv MILX?5roV Kac TrS OXrS 'Iowvas. From Dionysius
we also infer that Cadmus belonged to a distinctly older generation than
Hecataeus. The posthumous rivalry between him and Pherecydes for
the origination of literary prose points to the first half of the sixth
century; for Anaximander's prose treatise on Nature cannot have been
much later than 550 B.c. Cp. Gomperz, Griechische Denker, i. p. 41.