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

40 ANCIENT GREEK HISTORIANS LECT.

invasion of Xerxes; and that it was in the course
of his travels that he conceived the idea of a
larger work, of which the "Invasion of Xerxes"
should form the finale. The idea doubtless
shaped itself gradually; and the first six Books
were not composed in the order in which they
stand. But the author has worked with such
skill that only a searching analysis has detected
the series of facts which demonstrate the priority
of the last three Books1 and make it clear that
the Persian war was his original inspiration.
At whatever moment the idea of expanding
his original history to its fuller compass presented
itself, whether it was suggested by his journeys
or prompted him to become a traveller, it was
certainly connected closely with his travels, and
the occurrence of long geographical excursus is
one of the most striking features of the expansion.
So strongly marked indeed is the geographical
element, so long are the geographical sections, in
the work of Herodotus, that some critics have
been led to think that considerable parts of it
were originally intended to form part of a
1 Some few additions were made subsequently: thus in vii. 93 and 108
there are references to passages in the books which are earlier in order
but were later in composition. It is probable that the whole work never
received a final revision, and this would be sufficient to explain the unfulfilled promise of vii. 213, which is the insufficient but only real argument
for the hypothesis that the ninth Book is not complete. [How gratuitous
this hypothesis is, Macan shows at length, ib. ~ 6.] On the other hand it
seems not improbable that Herodotus intended to include in the early
portion of his work a summary of Babylonian history ('Ao-oa'pro X6yoL):
this seems to me more likely than that in i, 106 and 184 he is referring
to another work.