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

74 ANCIENT GREEK HISTORIANS LECT. I

elements are transfigured by the magic of his epic
art and the spell of a higher historical idea. He
was the Homer of the Persian war, and that war
originally inspired him. His work presents a
picture of sixth - century civilisation; and it is,also a universal history in so far as it gathers the
greater part of the known world into a narrative,which is concentrated upon a single issue. It is
fortunate for literature that he was not too critical;
if his criticism had been more penetrating and less
naive, he could not have been a second Homer. He
belonged entirely in temper and mentality to the
period before the sophistic illumination, which he
lived to see but not to understand. Before his
death, the first truly critical historian of the world
had begun to compose. Our attention will next
be claimed by Thucydides.