Problems in Greek historyMahaffy, J. P. (John Pentland)
History
Problems in Greek history
Mahaffy, J. P. (John Pentland)
Greece -- Historiography; Greece -- History
[59:2] It is an axiom, to which I shall revert, that all sceptics have
their credulous side; and so we find that Mr. Evelyn Abbott, a learned
and able man, who will not accept anything as real fact from the Homeric
poems, takes with childish faith the list in Eusebius, and tells us that
there we can read the names of the actual victors from 776 B.C. to 221
A.D.! (_History of Greece_, i. 246.) And he adds, with charming
_naïveté_, that the alleged fact of one thousand years' record of
foot-races 'would be incredible if it were not true. But it is true,'
etc. That a critical historian should tell us these things dogmatically,
without touching upon any of the difficulties involved, can only be
accounted for by the theory that he was following some authority he
respected, such as Duncker, without thinking the matter out for himself.
[60:1] I notice that older scholars, such as Newton, in his
_Chronology_, and Mitford, show quite a wholesome scepticism concerning
Pheidon's date, which they are disposed to bring down even lower than
Curtius proposes.
[60:2] _E. g._ Duncker, Abbott, Duruy, Busolt (i. 140) with the recent
literature cited, Holm (i. 256).
[61:1] The reader may consult a long list of tracts on the credibility
of Ephorus, and the accuracy with which our extant Greek authors cited
him, with the general conclusions to be inferred, in Busolt (i. 97 and
elsewhere) or Holm (i. 11-15).
[62:1] Though the Return of the Heracleids was placed by Eratosthenes in
1104 B.C., older authorities, just as competent, placed it later. Thus
Isocrates, in three of his orations, delivered 366-342 B.C., repeats
that the Dorians had now been four hundred years in Peloponnesus.
Applying this round number, we obtain 1066-1042 for the Return of the
Heracleids. The tenth generation, according to Greek counting, down from
this date for Temenus, would give us 760-730 B.C. This may be the very
computation by which the dates of Archias and Pheidon were fixed.
Duncker (i. 139) thinks the Dorians cannot have come before 1000 B.C. If
he reasoned like a Greek, and held Pheidon to be the tenth Temenid, he
would straightway put him below 700 B.C.
[64:1] The last has given a summary of the arguments in his _History_,
pp. 224, 241, and in the _Rhein. Museum_ for 1885, pp. 461 _seq._
[64:2] That Hippys of Rhegium lived during the Persian Wars, and wrote
[Greek: Sikelika], is stated by Suidas only and without any evidence.
[65:1] _Arch._ i. 12.
[65:2] Diod. xii. 71. I now repeat these facts, which I had urged long
ago, from the recent summary of Busolt (_op. cit._ p. 224).
[67:1] It is the treaty which he professes to give verbatim in v. 47,
with which the reader may compare the actual, though somewhat mutilated
text in C. I. A. i. Suppl. 46{b}.
[67:2] Cf. above, § 29.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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