Page:A Skeleton Outline of Greek History.djvu/15



In all ancient chronology we must distinguish the dates which have come down to us on the authority of ancient writers from those which we attempt to fix ourselves by various computations. In regard to the first, we have to inquire what is the value of the authority from which we have received the date, and what means had our authority of fixing it. For even if we allow that records of events were kept for a long time before any attempt was made at a systematic chronology, these records were nevertheless arranged according to the magistrates or kings of the cities in which the events occurred; there was no general era in existence, by which the various records could be brought into accurate relation to each other.

The list of the priestesses of Argos (the oldest list used in chronology) was published by Hellanicus, the elder contemporary of Herodotus, who also published a list of the victors in the Carnean Festival at Sparta. The same author seems to have revised the early Attic chronology. He may have had access to archives of the Neleid families, but in some points it is clear that his computations are mere fictions, invented with the object of bringing the chronology into a certain fixed scheme, and Thucydides thought it necessary to speak of the want of accuracy in the chronology of Hellanicus for the period between the Persian and Peloponnesian wars. Lists of the Spartan kings were in existence in the time of Herodotus. The list of the Olympic victors was published by Hippias of Elis, but it was not made the basis of chronology till Timaeus of Tauromenium ( 264).