THE GEOGRAPHY OF HERODOTUS, DEVELOPED, EXPLAINED, AND ILLUSTRATED FROM MODERN RESEARCHES AND DISCOVERIES. BY ames J. TALBOYS WHEELER, F. R. G. S. WITH MAPS AND PLANS. LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, AND LONGMANS. 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,2 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 Greece, Macedonia, Thrace, Aegypt, Aethiopia, and the isles of the Aegean, whilst much 1 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. |