The evidence is not, as a whole, of a satisfactory kind; the one _witness_ says little, and that in an unfortunate form, written seven years after the battle; the second writer depends upon oral tradition, reproduced when it was so old that it had become unreliable; the third writer is five centuries removed from the event and an uncritical compiler. How much certainty can we reach about the battle of Salamis from such evidence as this? Possibly only the fact that the battle took place, for it is not even certain that the Greeks won the sweeping victory that is claimed in the “Persians.” The details of the battle are only probable, and the degree of probability is decidedly low. This will become very clear when the outline is made and it is realized how much of our information comes from Herodotus’ late oral tradition. The only safe basis of historical certainty, the agreement of independent witnesses, is lacking here. After the class has written a narrative of the battle, let them compare it with the narrative in two or three of the best school histories. They will be somewhat surprised to learn that these accounts contain no suggestion of the uncertainty that surrounds the history of the battle, but describe it with all the confidence that might be displayed by a historian of events established by a cloud of witnesses. It may be objected that this sort of source work will raise very serious doubts in the pupils’ minds as to whether we know anything with certainty about the history of the early centuries. But what if it does? What harm has been done, if the impression is a correct one? Is not much of our knowledge concerning the history of the Greeks and the Romans of the most fragile character? Why attempt to conceal it? Should not the pupils be taught by this kind of critical study that much of what is repeated with confidence as history has hardly a shred of valuable evidence to rest on? It is the first step toward the attainment of the ideal that M. Lanson has so clearly and convincingly set before us. FOOTNOTE: [1] Lanson, Gustave. L’université et la société moderne (Paris, 1902), p. 97. Ancient History in the Secondary School WILLIAM FAIRLEY, Ph.D., Editor. Initial Problems.