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

38 ANCIENT GREEK HISTORIANS LECT.

in his day such divisions had not yet come into
fashion. But the Alexandrine editor who was
responsible for it was a man of extraordinary
insight. His distribution perfectly exhibits the
construction of the book and could not be improved by any change. But it can be rendered
more perspicuous by observing that each of the
nine Books is truly a sub-division and that the
primary partition is a threefold one.' The work
falls naturally into three sections, each consisting
of three parts. The first section, or triad of
Books, comprises the reigns of Cyrus and Cambyses,
and the accession of Darius; the second deals with
the reign of Darius; the third with that of
Xerxes. The first is mainly concerned with
Asia including Egypt; the second with Europe;
the third with Hellas. The first displays the rise
and the triumphs of the power of Persia; the
last relates the defeat of Persia by Greece; while
the middle triad represents a chequered picture,
Persian failure in Scythia and at Marathon, Greek
failure in Ionia. And each of the nine subdivisions has a leading theme which constitutes
a minor unity. Cyrus is the theme of the first
Book, Egypt of the second, Scythia of the fourth,
the Ionian rebellion of the fifth, Marathon of the
sixth. The seventh describes the invasion of
Xerxes up to his success at Thermopylae; the
eighth relates the reversal of fortune at Salamis;
the final triumphs of Greece at Plataea and Mycale
1 This has been well brought out by Macan.