A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

HIHERODOTUS. HERODOTUS. 431
lived before the time of Plato. (Arist. Hist. Anima. (viii. 132) mentions with considerable emphasis
vi. 6, ix. 12.) Herodorus was the author of a one Hedrodotus, a son of Basilides of Chios, and
work on the mythology and worship of Heracles, the manner in which the historian directs attention
which comprised at the same time a variety of to him almost leads us to suppose that this Chian
historical and geographical notices. It must have Herodotus was connected with him in some way
been a work of considerable extent. Athenaeus or other, but it is possible that the mere identity of
(ix. p. 410, f.) quotes from the 17th book of it. name induced the historian to notice him in that
It is frequently referred to in the scholia attached particular manner.
to the works of Pindar and Apollonius Rhodius, The birth year of Herodotus is accurately stated
and by Aristotle,Athenaeus, Apollodorus, Plutarch, by Pamphila (ap. Gell. xv. 23), a learned woman
and others. The scholiast on Apollonius also refers of the time of the emperor Nero: Herodotus, she
to a work by Herodorus on the Macrones, a nation says, was 53 years old at the beginning of the
of Pontus, to a work on Heraclea, and to one on Peloponnesian war; now as this war broke out in
the Argonauts. (Schol. ad Apoll. i. 1024, i. 71, B. C. 431, it follows that Herodotus was born in
773, &c.) Quotations are also found from the B. c. 484, or six years after the battle of Marathon,
OiS0Trois, IIrxAorea, and'OAvucrta of Herodorus. and four years before the battles of' Thermopylae
But it is not clear whether these were all separate and Salamis. IHIe could not, therefore, have had a
works or only sections of the work on Hercules. personal knowledge of the great struggles which
But the'Apryovav~TKc, which is frequently quoted, he afterwards described, but he saw and spoke with
was doubtless a separate work, as also was pro- persons who had taken an active part in them.
bably the work on IHeracleia; unless in the pas- (ix. 16). That he survived the beginning of the
sage where it is referred to (Schol. Apoll. ii. 815), Peloponnesian war is attested by Pamphila and
we should read flepZ'HpatcAhovs, instead of IIepl Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Jrcd. de Thucyd. 5;'HpcAtcdas. A mistake made by the scholiasts on comp. Diod. ii. 32; Euseb. Chron. p. 168, who
Apollonius (ii. 1211), -who ascribe to Herodorus however places Herodotus too early), as well as by
two hexameter lines from one of the Homeric Herodotus's own work, as we shall see hereafter.
hymns (Hymn. Hom. xxxiv.) has led to the sup- Respecting his youth and education we are altoposition that the Argonautics of Herodorus was a gether without information, but we have every
poem. The character of the quotations from it reason for believing that he acquired an early and
points to a different conclusion. Westermann has intimate acquaintance with Homer and other
collected the passages in which the writings of poems, as well as with the works of the logoHerodorus are quoted. (Vossius, De Hist. Gr. p. graphers, and the desire one day to distinguish
451, ed. Westermann.) himself in a similar way may have arisen in him
2. A writer who, according to Olympiodorus at an early age.
(Phot. Cod. 80), composed a history of Orpheus The successor of Artemisia in the kingdom (or
and Musaeus. If he is the same with the Herodorus tyrannis) of Halicarnassus was her son Pisindelis,
frequently mentioned in connection with Apion, he who was succeeded by Lygdamis, in whose reign
lived about the time of the emperors Tiberius and Panyasis was killed. Suidas states, that HeroClaudius. (Fabric. Bibl. Graec. vol. i. pp. 512, 515.) dotus, unable to bear the tyranny of Lygdamis,
3. A musician, a native of Megara, noted parti- emigrated to Samos, where he became acquainted
cularly for his size and voracity. (Athen. x. p. with the Ionic dialect, and there wrote his history.
414, f, 415, e.) The former part of this statement may be true, for
4. An intimate friend of Demetrius, son of Herodotus in many parts of his work shows an
Philip, king of Macedonia, who fell a victim to the intimate acquaintance with the island of Samos
artifices by which Perseus, the other son of Philip, and its inhabitants, and he takes a delight in rewas endeavouring to compass the ruin of his cording the part they took in the events he had to
brother. Having been cast into prison and put to relate; but that his history was written at a much
the torture, for the purpose of extorting from him later period will be shown presently. From
something which might be made the subject of a Samos he is said to have returned to Halicarnassus,
charge against Demetrius, he died under the pro- and to have acted a very prominent part in detracted tortures to which he was subjected, B. c. livering his native city from the tyranny of -Lyg181. (Liv. xl. 23.) [C. P.M.] damis; but during the contentions among the
HERO'DOTUS ('HpJdo'os). 1. The earliest citizens, which followed their liberation, Herodotus,
Greek historian (in the proper sense of the term), seeing that he was exposed-to the hostile attacks
and the father of history, was according to his own of the (popular?) party, withdrew again from his
statement, at the beginning of his work, a native native place, and settled at Thurii, in Italy, where
of Halicarnassus, a Doric colony in Caria, which he spent the remainder of his life. The fact of
at the time of his birth was governed by Arte- his settling at Thurii is attested by the unanimous
misia, a vassal queen of the great king of Persia. statement of the ancients; but whether- he went
Our information respecting the life of Herodotus is thither with the first colonists in B. C. 445, or
extremely scanty, for besides the meagre and con- whether he followed afterwards, is a disputed
fused article of Suidas, there is only one or two point. There is however a passage in his own
passages of ancient writers that contain any direct work (v. 77) from which we must in all probability
notice of the life and age of Herodotus, and- the infer, that in B. C. 431, the year of the outbreak
rest must be gleaned from his own work. Accord- of the Peloponnesian war, he was at Athens; for
ing to Suidas, Herodotus was the son of Lyxes and it appears from that passage that he saw the ProDryo, and belonged to an illustrious family of pylaea, which were not completed till the year in
Halicarnassus; -he had a brother of the name of which that war began. It further appears that he
Theodorus, and the epic poet Panyasis was a rela- was well acquainted with, and adopted the printion of his, being the brother either of his father ciples of policy followed by Pericles and his party
or his mother. (Suid. s. v. rHavvaoLrs.) Herodotus which leads us to the belief that he witnessed