TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK, BY THE REV. WILLIAM BELOE. COMPLETE IN THREE VOLUMES. VOL. I. The second American from the last corrected London New-York: PUBLISHED BY P. P. BERRESFORD. 1828. HERODOTUS, a celebrated historian of Halicarnassus, was born at Caria, in the first year of the seventy-fourth Olympiad, answering to B. C. 484. When he grew up, he left his native place, in order to travel, for the acquisition of knowledge, through Greece, Thrace, Scythia, Mesopotamia, Syria, and Egypt. After collecting, in this way, all the information he could obtain concerning the history and origin of nations, he retired to the isle of Samos, and composed this history. He was in his thirty-ninth year, when a generous desire of fame led him to publicly recite it at the Olympic games. It was heard with great applause and admiration, and the names of the nine muses were unanimously given to the nine books into which it is divided. This celebrated composition, which has procured its author the title of father of history, is written in the Ionic dialect. Herodotus is among the historians, what Homer is among the poets, and Demosthenes among the orators. His style abounds with elegance ease, and sweet |