COLLEGE GREEK COURSE IN ENGLISH.
P. 16.—“Herodotus.” Critical essays containing the results of the researches concerning Herodotus will be found in the works of the eminent Germans, Creuzer, Dahlman, Heyse, Blum, A. Bauer, K. O. Müller, Stein, Kirchhoff and Blakesley. De Quincey has an essay in Vol. i. of “Historical and Critical Essays.” See also Vol. ii. of “A History of Classical Greek Literature,” by J. P. Mahaffy.
The following abridged opinions on Herodotus are interesting. Macaulay says of him: Of the romantic historians, Herodotus is the earliest and the best. His animation, his simple-hearted tenderness, his wonderful talent for description and dialogue, and the pure, sweet flow of his language place him at the head of narrators. He reminds us of a delightful child.… But he has not written a good history.… The faults of Herodotus are the faults of a simple and imaginative mind. He wrote as it was natural he should write. He wrote for a nation susceptible, curious, lively, insatiably desirous of novelty and excitement; for a nation in which the fine arts had attained their highest excellence, but in which philosophy was still in its infancy. Mahaffy quotes the German Blakesley’s opinion that Herodotus wrote not to instruct but to please, that he selected such events and attributed such motives as he thought would be striking and popular, without any misgivings as to the accuracy of statement; that at his time there was no historic sense, but that the idea of exact and critical historical writing is a late and gradual acquisition which Thucydides acquired only by his extraordinary genius and circumstances in those early days.
P. 21.—“Rawlinson,” The Rev. George. (1815-⸺.) An Oxford man, in 1874 made Canon of Canterbury. Besides his “Herodotus” he has published a celebrated work called “The Five Great Monarchies of the Ancient Eastern World, or the History, Geography and Antiquities of Chaldea, Assyria, Babylonia, Media and Persia.” To this he added, in 1873, the “Sixth Great Oriental Monarchy,” meaning Parthia, and in 1876 the “Seventh Great Oriental Monarchy; or the Geography, History and Antiquity of the Sassanian or New Persian Empire.”
“Rawlinson,” Sir Henry. (1810-⸺.) A brother of the former. When but sixteen years of age he was sent to the East in the service of the East India Company; being transferred to the Persian army, he began to study the Persian cuneiform inscriptions and forwarded valuable copies to England. He also explored the countries of Central Asia. His studies have given him high rank among modern archæologists. His publications include several valuable works on the history and inscriptions of Assyria, Babylon and Chaldea, and he has contributed many learned papers to the journals of the Asiatic Society.
“Wilkinson.” (1797-1875.) An Englishman who during a residence of twelve years in Egypt studied the history, ruins, manners and customs of the country. His studies were embodied in voluminous works on a great variety of phases of Egyptian life and history, including the “Topography of Thebes and General View of Egypt,” “Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians,” “Architecture of Ancient Egypt,” “Modern Egypt and Thebes,” and others. In striking contrast was a subject on which he published a work in 1858—“Color, and the General Diffusion of Taste among all Classes.”
P. 22.—“Lydian Empire.” Lydia was a very early seat of Asiatic civilization, the empire being founded at Sardis in mythical times. Three dynasties of kings are said to have ruled the country, the Atyadæ, the Heraclidæ and the Mermnadæ, the last of which alone is authentic. Of their civilization Smith says: “Among the inventions or improvements which the Greeks are said to have derived from them were the weaving and dyeing of fine fabrics; various processes of metallurgy; the use of gold and silver money, which the Lydians are said to have first coined; and various metrical and musical improvements, especially the scale or mode of music called the Lydian, and the form of lyre called the Magadis.” After the Persian conquest of Lydia it formed with Mysia, the second satrapy. After the Macedonian conquest it passed to the kings of Syria, thence to those of Pergamus, and finally to the Romans, who made it a part of the province of Asia.
“Sardis,” or Sardes, stood until the wars of the Middle Ages, when in 1402 it was almost entirely destroyed by Tamerlane. The remains extend over a wide space. Two Ionic columns (see illustration, page 33, of “College Greek Course,”) are the most conspicuous of the remains. These columns are supposed to have belonged to a temple of Cybele. The walls of the Acropolis, some of its towers, a few remnants of the magnificent palace of Crœsus, of a gymnasium, and a few other buildings are all that can be traced. The tombs of the Lydian kings are in the neighborhood, prominent among which is the tumulus of Alyattes, a huge circular mound 1,140 feet in diameter. An Arabian village of mud huts called Sart now stands on its site.
P. 26.—“Crœsus’s father.” Alyattes, king of Lydia, B. C. 617-560.