PREFACE.

THE object of the accompanying work is to present the student with a full development and explanation of the Geography of Herodotus; and at the same time to enable the general reader to survey the ancient world at one of the most important periods of its history. Accordingly, in the first place, all the geographical notices and allusions throughout Herodotus have been brought together and digested into one continuous system; and secondly, such descriptions and illustrations have been borrowed from modern geography, as would correct his errors, reconcile his contradictions, explain his obscurities, and enable us to identify ancient sites with existing localities.

The want of such a work has long been felt both by the Classical and the Biblical student. Herodotus tells of the glorious deeds of Hellas at Marathon and at Thermopylae, at Salamis and at Plataea; and at the same time he describes Babylon and the great Persian empire as they were in the days of Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, and Aegypt as she probably appeared in the primeval times of the patriarchs and Pharaohs. But he relates the story in his own way, and follows a far more natural but

intricate arrangement than would have been adopted by the modern historian. His geographical descriptions are scattered about in the form of digressions, and a vast body of information also exists in the shape of brief notices, allusions, or illustrations.' It was therefore impossible for the student to avail himself of Herodotus's stock of geographical knowledge, unless he had thoroughly mastered the entire history; whilst a real comprehension of its character, as compared with modern geography, was only to be attained by a labour similar to that which has been expended on the present volume.

3

It would be invidious for the author to mention the defects of his predecessors, but he must confess that from Rennell's Geography of Herodotus,' and from Niebuhr's two well-known Dissertations, he has been unable to derive the assistance he had expected. Rennell omits the geography of European and Asiatic Grecce, Macedonia, Thrace, Aegypt, Aethiopia, and the isles of the Aegean, whilst much

It may be remarked that the Herodotean geography of Greece mainly consists of these brief and scattered notices, for as Herodotus presumed that its various countries were familiar to his readers, he rarely alludes to them, excepting when he seeks to illustrate the geography of other regions.

2 The Geographical System of Herodotus examined and illustrated, by Major James Rennell, F. R. S. Explained by eleven maps. 2 vols. 8vo, second edition, revised, London, 1830. Rennell's work is not a development of the Geography of Herodotus, but a series of disquisitions upon certain portions of it. It thus comprises dissertations upon the itinerary stade of the Greeks, the Scythian expedition of Darius Hystaspes, the site and remains of ancient Babylon, the captivity of the ten tribes, the floods, alluvions, and mouths of the Nile, etc. The most valuable are those on Scythia, the twenty satrapies of Darius, the Libyan tribes, and the circumnavigation of Africa by the Phoenicians.

3 Dissertation on the Geography of Herodotus, with a map; and Researches into the History of the Scythians, Getae, and Sarmatians. Translated from the German of B. G. Niebuhr, 8vo, Oxford, 1830.

of his information concerning other regions is either imperfect or obsolete. Niebuhr's Dissertations are more valuable, but exceedingly meagre; and it will also be seen that his theory concerning the supposed course of the Ister and the Scythian square, is no more to be reconciled with the description of Herodotus than with the actual geography of the country. The "Geographie des Herodot," by Hermann Bobrik,' is a far more important contribution to this branch of science, but unfortunately so limited in its design as to be of little use to the English student. It consists of an admirable arrangement of Herodotus's geographical notices, but borrows no illustration from any other ancient or modern author. It also omits the mythology, manners, and peculiar institutions of the Aegyptians, and numerous other particulars which it has been thought advisable to include in the present volume. Indeed the one object of Hermann Bobrik has been to develope the Herodotean ideas, without attempting to reconcile them with modern geography; and thus far the present author has derived much advantage from comparing and verifying his own digestion of Herodotus's geographical notices, with the labours of Bobrik. Other small works have likewise been consulted, but with much less advantage. Of these may specified the "Geographia et Uranologia Herodoti," by Bredow; the "Commentatio de Geographia Herodoti," by Dönniges; a little "Geography of Herodotus, with Maps," published at Cambridge;

be

Geographie des Herodot, vorzugsweise aus dem Schriftsteller selbst dargestellt von Hermann Bobrik, 8vo. Nebst einem Atlasse von zehn karten. Königsberg, 1838.

and the "Maps and Plans illustrative of Herodotus," published at Oxford.

In preparing the present Geography, the author has thus found it necessary to proceed independently of the labours of any of his predecessors. In the first place, he was obliged to make for himself a complete geographical index of Herodotus, arranged according to subjects; for though this task had been already executed by Bobrik, yet the latter had laboured for a different object, and had therefore excluded from his work many topics which belonged to the present design. When this mass of material had been sufficiently digested and classified, the whole had to be explained and illustrated by the light of modern geography. Accordingly general surveys and descriptions of each country have been introduced as prefaces to the accounts of Herodotus, and explanatory matter has been incorporated wherever it was deemed necessary; but in order to prevent confusion in the mind of the reader, those portions which were derived from Herodotus have been generally separated from the results of modern researches. The references at the foot of each page will in most cases indicate the authorities which have been consulted; but a large body of information has been long regarded as the common property of all geographers, and it is impossible to give the original authority for every statement. The following works however may be generally specified as those to which the writer has been chiefly indebted. The several commentaries upon Herodotus, especially those of Baehr and Larcher; the geographies of Macculloch, Murray, Malte Brun, and Ritter;