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

70 ANCIENT GREEK HISTORIANS LECT.

of it, leaves a wide room for portents, and it does
not cover oracles and dreams. (2) When you are/
confronted by conflicting evidence or differing
versions of the same event, keep an open mind;
audi alteramn partern. But this does not save him
from a biassed acceptance of Athenian tradition.
(3) Autopsy and first-hand oral information are
superior to stories at second hand, whether written
or oral.' This tends to take the naive form, "I
know, for I was there myself," and it placed the
historian at the mercy of the vergers and guides in
Egyptian temples.
I may illustrate by a couple of examples how
Herodotus was sometimes unfortunate in his ilformation gathered on the spot. When he visited
Egypt he saw on the great Pyramid inscriptions
which disappeared in the Middle Ages. Probably
they were of religious import, appropriate to a
royal tomb. But Herodotus tells us that they
enumerated the sums of money which were expended on the onions and leeks consumed by the
workmen who built the pyramid. This was the
interpretation with which the guide satisfied the
Greek traveller's curiosity.2 The other instance
1 Compare, e.g., ii. 99. I have little doubt that Herodotus visited and
examined the battlefield of Plataea. Our difficulties in reconstructing
the battle (elucidated by Grundy, Woodhouse, and Macan) from his
description are not an objection. We may remember that the account of
the battle of Trasimene by Polybius, who had visited the place and was
a master of military science, lends itself to different interpretations.
The features of the Pass of Thermopylae as described by Herodotus
can be recognised by any traveller to-day; but he can hardly have been
there, for he orients it N.S. instead of E.W.
2 See Wiedemann, ad Her. ii. 195.