The tyrant was dethroned, and Halicarnassus might have been free; but the motives which urged the Historian to make this attempt were shared by few among those who had joined in the execution. The men of rank and the wealthy had been eager to overthrow the tyrant, in order they might get the government in their own hands, and establish an aristocracy. The people presently discovered, that the assumed enthusiasm for liberty was but a pretext to subject them to a yoke still more galling. The virtuous republican, too honest to join the aristocratic party, was looked upon by them with a jealous eye: on the other hand, he was insulted by the people, as the author of a change which they found ruinous to themselves. The natural simplicity and honesty of his own heart had probably hitherto blinded the Historian to the fact, that patriotism and love of freedom are the cloaks under which men are wont to hide the deformities of a selfish nature: convinced now by experience, and disgusted, he bade farewell for ever to his ungrateful country 16. He proceeded to Olympia": the games were then celebrating, and he read to an illustrious meeting in the Opisthodomus 18 some portions of his History. Although the circumstance is not immediately connected with his life, it must not be omitted to observe, that among his hearers was Thucydides, then about fifteen years of age: the youth, swelling with noble ambition, burst into tears: Olorus," said Herodotus to the boy's father, "thy son "burns with the desire of knowledge"." The compositions of the Historian were much applauded. Encouraged by the wages most gratifying to a high and well-formed 16 Suidas in 'Hgédoros. 17 Aul. Gell. Noct. Attic. xv. 23. 18 The Opisthodomus was a large hall in the back part of the temple of Olympian Jove at Elis; where Herodotus recited, during the celebration of the Olympic Games, a part of his History, in the presence of the men the most distinguished by their talents and acquirements, who had collected from all parts of Greece. Lucian. in Herodoto, i. quoted by Geinoz. 19 'Ogyã å Qúcis toũ vioũ coũ ægòs rà patńpara. Marcell. Vit. Thucyd. Wess. Herod. Vit. Dodwell, Apparat. ad Annal. Thucydid. 18. mind, he dedicated the next twelve years of his life to the improvement of a work destined by Providence to survive long after his own death, and to remain, for future generations, an inexhaustible mine of useful knowledge and practical wisdom. He recommenced his researches and his travels with renovated ardour; and, as he had before directed his attention more particularly to the nations and countries which acknowledged the supremacy of the Persian empire, he now travelled with the same patience of investigation over the various provinces of Greece, collecting the records of the most illustrious families of the different towns of any note. Having thus brought his work to a degree of perfection more satisfactory to his own mind, he presented himself before the Athenians at the Panathenæa 20, a festival celebrated in the summer. He again read some extracts from his History; and that enlightened people not only applauded the work, but presented the writer with ten talents11 from the public treasury. Soon after this second triumph, he joined a band of adventurers, who quitted Athens to found a colony at Thurium2, near the ancient site of Sybaris, in the south of Italy. On his arrival at Thurium, Herodotus was forty years of age; and here, it is probable, he passed the remainder of his days, making various improvements in his History: indeed, several passages are pointed out by the commentators, which were evidently added to the body of the work 23 subsequently to his coming to reside in Italy; more particularly the revolt of the Medes against Darius Nothus, which must have been inserted, according to good chrono 20 Corsini Fast. Attic. tom. ii. 357. Larcher, Vie d'Hérodote, lxxxv. 21 Plutarch. de Malig. Herod. 22 Plin. Hist. Nat. xii. 4. Larcher, Vie d'Hérodote, lxxxvi. 23 1. The Lacedæmonian invasion of Attica, in the first year of the Peloponnesian War, lib. ix. 72. 2. The calamitous lot of the Lacedæmonian ambassadors sent into Asia in the second year of the Peloponnesian War, vii. 137. 3. The desertion of Zopyrus the son of Megabyzus, to the Athenians, iii. 160. logists, after he had completed his seventy-sixth year. The period, the manner, and the place of his death are alike unknown; although it seems unquestionable that his tomb, or at least his cenotaph, was shewn on the Cole, just without one of the gates of Athens, among the monuments of Cimon's family, and near that of Thucydides 25. The admirers of Herodotus are disappointed to find that so few details of the life of this great and virtuous man can be gathered from the works of the ancients that have reached our time. It would, indeed, be gratifying to the curious, and instructive to the world at large, particularly in the present age, to be informed by what process of education, and what series of accidents in life, this Historian was brought to unite the highest feeling of devotion and religion with the faculty of penetrating the human causes of events, and to join that patience of research, which spurned not even the most trifling details of humannature, to such depth of thought and quickness of perception. But it is useless to repine at the absence of what was never possessed: it will be more prudent to direct our attention to his writings; in which he may be said, more perhaps than any other of the ancient authors, to be still living; for he dispenses instruction with such a delightful alloy of amusement, and, at the same time, discovers the principal features of his character with such amiable artlessness, that it is impossible to study his pages without feeling a sort of friendly attachment to the man, or picturing to the imagination almost a personal idea of the writer. In order, however, to form a just estimate of the art and character of this Historian, it is necessary, first of all, to understand well the method which he has followed; for so extensive and numerous are the subjects which he has handled, that while some can compare him only to Homer, 24 Larcher, Vie d'Hérodote, lxxxix.; and Herod. lib. i. 130. in the art with which he has blended so many heterogeneous parts into one beautiful whole, others deny that he had any fixed plan at all, and emphatically observe, that his History is no sooner read than it is forgotten. To point out all the instances of the nicety of art by which Herodotus has contrived to insert in a narrow compass a panorama, as it were, of the whole world, would be a subject sufficiently extensive for an interesting work. It will not, however, be irrelevant, to give in this place the broad lines of Herodotus's plan of history; leaving the attentive and sagacious reader to supply the deficiencies by his own exertions in the study of the original author. PLAN AND OBJECT OF THE HISTORY. The ultimate object, therefore, in the History of Herodotus, is, to commemorate the glorious struggle between the Greeks and the Persians; in which the former successfully defended their liberties against the incredible multitudes brought into the field, from all parts of the world, by the latter, whose dominion extended over the whole of Asia and Africa then known, and some parts of Europe. The account of the immediate causes of the war, and the events which ensued after its breaking out, commences at the Fifth Book, and is thence continued to the end of the work; occasionally interrupted by digressions, or rather episodes, which serve to relieve the reader's attention, by diverting it for a while from the direct course of the History, and thus, by instructing, to amuse. Such however is the nicety with which most of those digressions, as they are called, are fitted into the body of the work, that, in almost every case, the History would lose by their suppression, not only in interest, but even in perfection as a whole. The most remarkable events, tending directly towards the ultimate scope of the History—and they are all contained in the five last Books-may be summed up in a few words. The Ionians, having ensured the assistance of the 34 30 33 Athenians 26, revolt from the Persian empire": the Athenians send a few ships to the succour of their descendants: they obtain possession of Sardis, and fire its buildings 28. Darius, king of Persia, informed of the share the Athenians have had in the capture and destruction of Sardis, swears that he will wreak vengeance on them": he commences by reducing once more the Ionians 3o, and then despatches a formidable army against Athens". The Persians are beaten at Marathon 32. Enraged at the tidings of this defeat, Darius makes still greater preparations "; but his vengeance is suspended for a time by the rebellion of Egypt 3, one of his provinces, and finally checked for ever by death 35. Xerxes, his son and successor, prompted, as is natural in a young man, by ambition, and the counsels of the imprudent, instead of confining his designs to the punishment of Athens, resolves to subdue the whole of Greece: determining to march in person against the enemy, he levies the most numerous and formidable army ever heard of"; he mans a considerable fleet 3; and establishes, for this immense multitude, magazines of corn and provisions on the frontier of Greece"; and finally, after two years of incessant preparations, commences his march in the spring of the third 40. He first receives a check at Thermopyla "; and, his fleet being afterwards defeated at Salamis 2, he returns into Asia, covered with disgrace 13, Mardonius, his chief general, is however left in Europe, with the ablest part of the forces: in the following year, Mardonius is conquered at Plataa 15; and, by a singular coincidence, on the very day of the battle of Platæa, another battle is fought by the forces on board the Grecian fleet, against a Persian army stationed at 43 26 Lib. v. 97. 41 |