The Local Historians of Attica (American Philological Association Philological Monographs)

y 'EXAapiKOs,. /

Tf tcai rols \pbvois OVK cucpt/SuJs eircfjLv^ffOri.

8Suid. s.v. XApau- Aa^aKijv&s; Ath. 11.47SB; 12.S20D. Jacoby, "Ueber die

Entwicklung der griech. Historiographie," Kl 9 (1909) 110-19, regards the develop-

ment of 'fipoi as post-Herodotean. Laqueur's article in RE s.v. " Lokalchronik " is

concerned more with the origin of official records than with the birth of a literary form.

' Cf. e.g. Ed. Meyer, Forschungen 1.176.

i»27.

11 8S9B. Cf. Tertullian, Anim. 46, who speaks of Charon as Herodoio prior. For

a fuller discussion of Charon see Early Ionian Historians, chap. 4.

4 THE LOCAL HISTORIANS OF ATTICA

contact with the East and renewed the interest of Ionian readers

in the manners and customs of the various nations under Persian

rule. Two generations previously Hecataeus, in his Periegesis or

Tijs HepioSos, had written on these subjects and now we find Herod-

otus and Hellanicus following his lead, continuing the geographical

and ethnographical discussion which he first popularized. But if

one of the literary forms developed by Hecataeus regained its

popularity in works like the Persica, Aegyptiaca, and Barbarica

Nomima of Hellanicus, mythography, the other branch of prose

writing which he developed, suffered a different fate. The treat-

ment of mythological themes by the tragedians inevitably over-

shadowed the work of prose mythographers, and later writers strove

to attract attention by novelty and rationalistic discussion. Traces

of this tendency are clear enough in the mythographical works of

Hellanicus and become more pronounced later with Herodorus of

Heraclea. But the more straightforward treatment of mytho-

logical subjects in prose, literary or instructional in character rather

than controversial, naturally declined as tragedy developed. There

is no certain proof that Hellanicus wrote his Phoronis, Deucalioneia,

and Troica early in his career; but it would be in keeping with

literary and historical developments if mythography occupied him

in his earlier years and he devoted himself to ethnology and local

history in the middle and latter part of his life.

With these considerations in mind we are in a position better to

evaluate the evidence about the life of Hellanicus. Suidas, how-

ever untrustworthy, cannot be ignored.12 He tells us that, in com-

pany with Herodotus, Hellanicus was at the court of the Macedonian

king Amyntas "in the time of Euripides and Sophocles." There

is some confusion here, since Amyntas I is too early for these drama-

tists and Amyntas II too late; but the statement that he went to

the Macedonian court need not be dismissed because it is un-

intelligently reported. Suidas continues: "His career follows upon

that of Hecataeus (since he was born at the time of the Persian

Wars or even earlier) 13 and extends down to the time of Perdiccas;

12 S.v. 'EXXdpiKos : MiruX^paTos, ioropiKis, vlos 'A.v8pon&ovs, oi 8k 'Apurronevovs, ol

5i ZKajuuipos • ov i>n&vvpov ftrx*v vlbv. 5tcTpt^c &k EXXd^iKos icpbaQtv for the MS.

reading: ftyovim . . . Kal ^IK/IW Trpos.

THE Atthis OF HELLANICUS 5

he died at Perperene, on the mainland facing Lesbos; he wrote a

large number of works both in prose and verse." This indication

of date, consistent with the statement of Pamphila that he was

born in 496,14 is hard to reconcile with the scholion already quoted,

which indicates that the Atthis was not composed till after 406;

more especially since a catalogue of long-lived men 15 allows him a

life of Only eighty-five years. Either the tradition of Suidas and

Pamphila is incorrect, or else the scholion, as it stands, must be

disregarded. Diels and Rutherford chose to emend the text of the

scholion: Diels substituted ®e6xo/nros kv 'EXXTjwKois for 'EXXdwKos;16

Rutherford thought that the scholiast cited Hellanicus for the en-

franchisement of the slaves who fought at Salamis, and that it was

Philochorus who described the repetition of this reward after

Arginusae.17 More recent criticism has rejected these emenda-

tions, and reasonably so.18 We do not know on what evidence the

biographical tradition about Hellanicus rests; hence we are not

justified in accepting its testimony, when that involves rejecting

the clear and intelligible reading of the text of the Aristophanes

scholiast, who is quoting an actual passage from the Atthis.

Pamphila's dates for the three historians are generally held to

rest upon calculations in which the year of each author's floruit

is taken to be his fortieth year: Thucydides is thought to "flourish"

at the opening of the Peloponnesian War, so that the date of his

birth is 471; Herodotus likewise is said to be born in 484, forty years

before the colonization of Thurii, in which he took part; but why

should the floruit of Hellanicus be 456? The most ingenious expla-

nation is that of Riihl,19 who thinks that Apollodorus in his Chronica,

where Pamphila found her information, made Hellanicus a con-

temporary of Euripides; and that 456 was taken as the year of his

floruit because Euripides produced his first tragedy in that year.

Other ancient writers believed the two writers were both born on

14 Cell. 15.23: Hellanicus initio belli Peloponnesiaci fuisse quinque et sexaginta

annoa natus videtur, Herodotus tres et quinquaginta, Thucydides quadraginta.

Scriptum est hoc in libro undecimo Pamphilae.

"Luc. Macr. 22.

MRhM 31 (1876) 53.

17 The scholion is printed as follows in his edition: rods SaXajiuci paujuaxwai'Tas

Sob\ovs 'EXXdptros i}cnv f\fv9tp.

18 For a strong protest against Diels' method see Wilamowitz, H 11 (1876) 291-94.

"RhM 61 (1906) 473-76.

6 THE LOCAL HISTORIANS OF ATTICA

the day of Salamis and that the name of 'EXXdvixos, a contracted

form of 'EAXawviKos, celebrated this "victory of the Greeks." 20

It seems impossible to establish the date of Hellanicus' birth.

But the character of his work evidently led critics to regard him

as belonging to the generation before Thucydides; Dionysius of

Halicarnassus in his letter to Pompey groups Charon and Hellanicus

together as predecessors of Herodotus, though in his essay on Thucy-

dides he speaks of Hellanicus and Herodotus as older contemporaries

of Thucydides.21 For the present, however, we are concerned

principally with the date of the Atthis; whatever the exact date of

his birth may be, we can accept the scholion as evidence that the

Atthis was not published till the closing years of the fifth century.

About Hellanicus' family circumstances and his way of life we

have no direct evidence. But we are entitled to draw some con-

clusions from the fact that he wrote an Atthis. Like Herodotus,

he evidently abandoned his Ionian public and went to Athens in

search of fresh success. We are much better informed about the

literary tastes of Athens during the second half of the fifth century

than about those of Ionia. The development of Athenian democ-

racy had stimulated interest in oratory, and this was the field in

which Athenian prose writers made most progress. This interest

in the art of speaking encouraged some sophists to try the experi-

ment of giving lectures on historical themes. Though Herodotus

and Hippias of Elis are the only ones recorded to have been success-

ful in this venture,22 Jacoby maintains, plausibly enough, that

Hellanicus had a successful career as a travelling lecturer.23

Ionian lecturers and historians, probably contemptuous of

Athens as a state with a shorter artistic history than Ionia and

jealous of its newly-won literary fame, would naturally pick out

themes likely to appeal to popular taste. In the middle of the

century the obvious theme was the struggle of the Greeks against

Persia (Ta Mr;5tKa). But after 450 the interest in this subject

waned. Tradition places the successful lectures of Herodotus prior

to his departure for Thurii. With him we may suppose that treat-

ment of Ta Mr;5iK/ iroXtv %KTi(7fv." F.81 is disputed.

St. Byz. s.v. Xatpcopcia tells how the town was named after Chaeron; TOVTOV Si pv6o-

\oyovaLv 'A7r6XXcoj>os Kai Q-rjpovs, cos 'EXXdpiKos iv fi' 'lepeicop "Upas. Then follows an

apparent quotation: 'Aftjvcuoi /cat ptr' aiirSiv liri rods 'Opxo/Ki'ifoj'Tas rat

BOICOTCOJ' iirfpxo^pot Kal Xatpwveiav iroXii/ 'Qpxontviwv tl\ov, which seems to refer to the

Athenian campaign in Boeotia in 447, but does not follow naturally on what goes

before. Jacoby accepts the existence of a lacuna. Wilamowitz (Aristoieles u. Atken

1.281 note) thinks the quotation may be from Theopompus.

"F.81, 77.

80 F.79b—D.H. Ant. Rom. 1.22.3: TO ii.kv Sff SixeXiicoc -j-eros OUTCOS «£eXur«> 'lTaX£ai»,

cos fjifv 'EXXdpiKos 6 A€ avrCiv /cat TO. en jraXatTtpa \kyovra.i kv pkpti nvl TTJS xPis KfoXwTres nal Aaiorpi/yom

oiKTJyni, Siy iyu oiire yhos exw «7reic o&re 6ir66(v 'tarjXSov fi oiroi airtxwpriaav apKeiru

64 is iroir/Ta.is TI ttpr/Tai KCU coj fKaarrfa -n-rj yiyvuaKti irtpi aiirCiv.

11 4.24.5: Kal % elms Kal Xe7ercu) in

support of the story that the Sicels, fleeing from the Opici, crossed

the straits of Messina on rafts. He gives the derivation of the

name of Italy from the Sicel king Italus, a typical Ionian explana-

tion, perhaps borrowed from Antiochus of Syracuse.21 In the

account of the Greek settlements which follows, care is taken to

name the original oiKurral and the date of the settlement.

It does not fall within the scope of this chapter to discuss in

detail the characteristics of Ionian Ktiseis nor the influence exercised

on Thucydides by this particular branch of quasi-historical litera-

ture. The interest of Thucydides in early settlements is relevant

here only because it is one of the points which show his affinity to

the Ionian school and the methods of Hellanicus.22 Apart from the

opening chapters of Book VI and his remarks about the origin of

Amphilochian Argos, it is worth while to note his mention of the

founders (otwcrrol) of Heracleia in Trachis,23 his account of the

attempts to colonize Amphipolis and their date,24 and the claim of

19 "Der Ursprung der Exkurse in Thukydides," RhM 78 (1929) 58-67.

20 Antiochus of Syracuse is commonly regarded as a source for Thuc. here. Cf.

W. Schmid, Griech. Literaturgesch. 1.2.704, where the relevant literature is listed.

21 Cf. D.H. Ant. Rom. 1.35, where the version of Hellanicus is also given.

22 For Hellanicus' account of the settlement of Sicily, cf. F.79 and 82. For his ety-

mologies of tribal and place names cf. F.13, 14, 38, 71.

233.92.5.

"4.102.

34 THE LOCAL HISTORIANS OF ATTICA

the people of Scione that the inhabitants of Pellene came originally

from the Peloponnese and settled in their new home on their return

from Troy.25

Far more frequent than these remarks characteristic of Ktiseis

are those which recall the style of a Periegesis and the methods of

Hecataeus of Miletus. Such characteristics, as revealed by the

fragments of Hecataeus, are a readiness to connect geographical

sites with heroes and episodes of mythology; an interest in earlier

names of places; a tendency to describe an inland settlement or an

island by giving its distance from the coast; and above all a tendency

to use certain very brief formulae in giving the information. Nu-

merous sentences can be found in Thucydides, which show him

using formulae of description similar to those of Hecataeus. Ad-

mittedly, these formulae might be used by any writer of any age

and their appearance in itself proves nothing. One is justified in

claiming to find the influence of a Periegesis here only because there

are occasions when this conventional style of description is out of

keeping with its surroundings, and the geographical notes seem

uncalled for by the narrative or the argument. I have discussed

this question at greater length in a special article,26 and only a

small portion of the relevant material can be set forth here.

At the end of Book II Thucydides has a digression on the extent

of the Odrysian kingdom and describes the various peoples in it.

In this description there are a number of sentences which, to a reader

familiar with the fragments of Hecataeus and the later Periploi,

recall the style and manner of a Periegesis. For example, he de-

scribes some of the tribes on the boundary of the kingdom as follows:

"In the direction of the Triballi, who likewise are independent, the

boundary tribes are the Treres and Tilataei; these live to the north

of Mount Scombrus and extend in a westerly direction as far as the

River Oscius." Then he adds: "And this river has its source in the

same mountain range as the Hebrus and the Nestus; it is a desolate

and extensive range, bordering on Rhodope." 27 This is an irrele-

vant note for his purpose, though it would be normal and necessary

in a geographical handbook about Thrace.28

» 4.120.1. Cf. 7.57.4.

m "Thucydides and the Geographical Tradition," CQ 33 (1939) 48-54.

27 2.96.4: pet J' OUTOS IK roD opous otitvirtp Kal 6 Neoros Kai 6 "EjSpor fan 6i iprjuov

TO opos nal jue7a, Ix/ur»t> rfjs 'PoSojnjs.

28 Cf. a sentence from Hecataeus, quoted by Strabo (12.3.22—F.217): txl &' 'AXaftp

3ro\t 7rora/i6s 'OSpfoffrjs p&w StA. Mi>75oj>t?;s TreStou [d?r6 56 Trpuruv fja