HER 
-acombination of great talents and great vices. The 
success which attended his enterprizes, and which shed 
a false though dazzling lustre around his government, 
has given an eminent rank in the list of sovereigns ; 
while the savage disposition, which appears to have ta- 
' ken delight in the most revolting and horrible acts of 
cruelty, has consigned his memory to merited detesta- 
tion. He was the first, it may be remarked, who shook 
the foundations of the Jewish government. He appoint- 
ed the high-priests and removed them at his pleasure, 
‘without any regard to the laws of succession; and he 
entirely destroyed the authority of the national council. 
In short, his reign was similar to that of most able ty- 
rants; splendid and glorious to outward appearance, 
but, in reality, destructive of the prosperity of the king- 
_ dom over which he ided. See Jusephus, Prideaux, 
Lardner ; Univers. Hist. ;, and Gen. Biog. Dict. (z 
HERODOTUS, the most ancient of the Greek his- 
ymca -¥ works are extant, and thence called by 
ficero the Father of History, was born at Halicarnas- 
‘sus in Caria, in the first year of the 74th Olympiad, or 
about 484 years B.C. The name of his father was 
‘Lyxes; that of his mother Dryo The city of Hali- 
carnassus being at that time oppressed by the tyranny 
of Ly, is, grandson of Artemisia, Queen of Caria, 
Herodotus quitted his country, and retired to Samos ; 
from whence he travelled over Egypt, Greece, Italy, 
&c. collecting every where all the Sdemeation he could 
rocure concerning the origin and vg ne Bo nations, 
He then began to digest the materials he thus col- 
lected, and com that history which has preserved 
his name tation even to our times. e is 
nerally su to have written it in the island of 
Samos, where he studied the Ionic dialect, in which 
his hi is composed ; his native dialect being the 
Doric. \ He afterwards revisited his native place, and is 
said to have greatly displeased and irritated his coun« 
trymen, in consequence of having contributed, by his 
influence, to ro eens: of the —_ ent, Sg 
expulsion of t t pam, which obli im 
neat to go into eu. hen he had attained his 
thirty-ninth year, he was induced, by the desire of 
fame, to recite his history to the le assembled at 
the Olympic games. It was received with universal 
lause, and procured him a general and permanent 
colcbeity hout all the states of Greece. The 
lace and period of his death are uncertain; but it is pro- 
le that he died in exile in a town of Magna Grecia. 
The history of Herodotus embraces a period of about 
240 years, from the time of Cyrus the Great, to Xerxes ; 
and contains, besides the transactions between Persia 
and Greece, a sketch of the affairs of other nations, as 
of the Lydians, Ionians, Lycians, Egyptians and Mace-~ 
donians. The work is divided into nine books, which 
are called after the nine muses, not by the historian 
oben but, as it is a — cone at the 
pic games, when were recited, as a com- 
pliment to the author. is 
As an historian, Herodotus has been generally cen< 
757 
Ts 
HER 
sured for betraying too great a iality for the '- Herodotus. 
vellous, But @ me be remarked in hi justification, —_——_ 
Imo, That the truth of many of the physical phenome. 
na which he relates, and which were considered as in- 
credible prodigies by the ancient writers, has been 
abundantly confirmed by modern discoveries ; and, 2do, 
That Herodotus compiled a great part of his history 
from popular traditions, and expressly cautions his 
readers against an implicit belief of many of the won- 
derful things he relates upon the authority of mere 
hearsay. And it is an argument much in favour of 
this ancient writer, that his chronology requires leas 
correction, according to Newton’s Canons, than that of 
any of the subsequent Greek historians. With 
to those great transactions which took place in Greece 
after his own birth, he is erally thought to be wor- 
thy of credit ; and the publication of his work, at a ge- 
neral assembly of the nation, may be considered as a 
voucher for bis veracity. He has, nevertheless, been 
suspected of partiality in particular instances ; and Pin- 
tarch, the most formidable of his critics, wrote a small 
treatise On the Malignity of Herodotus, in which he 
expressly taxes him with injustice towards the The- 
bans and Corinthians, and, indeed, towards the Greeks 
in general. His history, however, is still accounted 
one of the most precious relics of antiquity. The 
| Seo inconvenience attending the geranal ‘f this 
istorian, results from his method and arrangement, 
which are extremely awkward, irregular, and discur- 
sive ; some entire histories being introduced, by way of 
‘parenthesis, in the bodies of others. His style is 4 
graceful, flowing, and copious even to edubecands: hf 
chief excellence lies in narrative, as it seems to want 
force and conciseness for sentiment and remark, in 
which he is surpassed by Thucydides. Herodotus is 
esteemed the model of the Ionic, and Thucydides of 
the Attic dialect. . 
Besides this work, Herodotus is sup to have 
written an history of Assyria; which, if it was ever 
published, (which seems doubtful,) is now lost. The 
Life of Homer, which is usually printed at the end of 
his works, has also been ascribed to Herodotus; but 
the best critics are of opinion that it is the production 
of a different author. 
The two best editions of Herodotus are that of Wes- 
seling, fol. Amsterdam, 1763 ; and that of Glasgow, in 
9 vols. 12mo. 1761. A very excellent edition of Hero-~ 
dotus, in Greek and Latin, was published in Edinburgh 
by Mr Laing, in 7 vols. 12mo, in the year 1806, cor- 
rected by Professor Porson and Professor Dunbar. The 
edilio princeps is that of Aldus, Venet. fol. 1502. There 
are two English translations of this historian; the one 
by Littlebury, in 2 vols. 8vo. and the other by Mr 
Beloe, in 4 vols. 8vo. with many useful and entertain- 
ing remarks and annotations. ‘There is also an excel~ 
lent French translation, with very learned notes, by M. 
Larcher. The y of Herodotus has been ex- 
amined and explained by the ingenious Major Rennell, 
in one volume 4to, 1800. (*) 
