anaximander's book. 259 



nice question of chronology, which cannot be settled. Hecataeus, 

 at all events, was younger than both and earlier than Heraclitus. 

 We have, moreover, the evidence of Herodotus,^° who represents 

 Hecataeus as prominent in the councils of Miletus in the Ionian 

 Revolt (499 and 497/6). The role which he plays in these events 

 proves that he was an 'elder statesman.' In the article of Suidas 

 about Hellanicus there is clearly a confusion, which others have 

 sought to correct.^ ^ In view of tliis corruption of the text, one cannot 

 of course adduce it in evidence. Even worse is the entry of Suidas 

 in regard to Dionysius. "Dionysius of Miletus, historian: Events 

 after Darius in five books, Geography, Persian, History in the Ionic 

 dialect, Trojan History in three books, Mythieal History, Historic 

 Cycle in seven ^^ books." Here, as all acknowledge, we have a hope- 

 less jumble arising from the confusion of an indeterminate number of 

 the almost innumerable writers who bore the name of Dionysius. 

 This being so, we must clearly rule out this datum also as incapable 

 of yielding a date; for the only item in this bibliographical farrago 

 possibly serviceable for chronological purposes, the Events after 

 Darius, not only shares the general doubt attaching to the list as a 

 whole, but is in itself ambiguous.^^ That Dionysius of Miletus was 

 an historian we must grant, and that he wrote on Persian history in 

 the time of Cambyses and Darius I. is exceedingly probable.^* Beyond 

 that we have thus far been unable to go. 



There is, however, another chronological datum to be found in the 

 entry of Suidas regarding Hecataeus: "Hecataeus, son of Hegesi- 

 mander, of Miletus ; he lived in the time of Darius who was king after 

 Cambyses, when Dionysius of ]\Iiletus also lived, in the sixty-fifth 

 Olympiad: a writer of history." This chronological notice, obviously 



50 Hdt. 5. 36, 12.5. 



51 Kai 'E/caraio; t(2 MtXijcrtoj tirej3a\e yeyovoTi, naTO. to. UepaLKa Kai ^iKpCo irpos 

 (wpoadev?) . Here various scholars have proposed to read yeyovchs (for yeyoi^oTi), 

 referping the date to Hellanicus, who would thus be regarded as forty years 

 of age ca.480 B.C., and consequently forty years younger than Hecataeus. 

 That the text is corrupt is evident: the proposed emendation is doubtful. 



52 Eudocia says 'six books.' 



53 Not to speak of 'Darius the Mede,' i.e. Astyages (according to Syncellus), 

 there were three Persian kings of that name, between whom it is impossible 

 to choose without knowing which Dionysius is supposed to have written the 

 history. 



54 Certain parts of the story of Cambyses as told by Herodotus, such as the 

 embassy of the Ichthyophagi to 'the long-lived Ethiopians' (3.20 sq.), certainly 

 are steeped in Milesian science and almost certainly come from a Milesian 

 author; but there is nothing apparently to suggest Hecataeus. Here one 

 might well conjecture that Herodotus was borrowing from Dionysius. Other 

 similar matters occur in the third book of his History. 



