Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 2.djvu/376

Rh 362 HECATAEUS. for some reason or another he did not accompany him in this expedition. (See, however, Curt, vii. 1. § 38.) Nor do we know any thing of the steps by which he raised himself to the sovereignty of his native city ; but it appears that he must have done so long before the death of Alexander, as we are told that his fellow-citizen, Eumenes, frequently employed his influence with the king, though in- effectually, to induce him to expel Hecataeus, and restore freedom to Cardia. (Plut. Eum. 3.) He seems to have enjoyed a high place in the confi- dence of Antipater, as he was chosen by him as his deputy to Leonnatus, to invoke the assistance of the latter in the Lamian war (b. c. 323). Leonna- tus sought on this occasion to effect a reconciliation between Hecataeus and Eumenes, but without success ; and the latter, mistrusting the projects of Leonnatus, secretly withdrew to join Perdiccas. The name of Hecataeus is not again mentioned. (Diod. xviii. 14 ; Plut. Eum. 3.) [E. H. B.] HECATAEUS ('E/caTaTos). L Of Miletus, one of the earliest and most distinguished Greek histo- rians (logographers) and geographers. He was the son of Hegesander, and belonged to a very ancient and illustrious family (Herod, ii. 143). According to Suidas, he was a contemporary of Dionysius of Miletus, and lived about the 65th olympiad, i. e. B. c. 520. Hence Larcher and others conclude that he was born about 550, so that in B. c. 500, the time at which he acted a prominent part among the lonians, he would have been about fifty years old. As Hecataeus further (Suidas, s- r. '^Khdvi- Kos) survived the Persian war for a short time, he seems to have died about B. c. 476, shortly after the battles of Plutaeae and Mycale. Suidas tells us that Hecataeus was a pupil of Protagoras, which is utterly impossible for chronological reasons, just as it is impossible that Hecataeus should have been a friend of Xenocrates, as Strabo says (xii. p. 550.) Hecataeus must have been possessed of considerable wealth, for, like many other eminent men of that age, he satisfied his desire for knowledge by travel- ling into distant countries, and seeing with his own eyes that which others learnt from books. We know from Herodotus (/. c.) that Hecataeus visited Egypt, and from the manner in which later writers speak of his geographical knowledge, there can be no doubt that he visited many other countries also. (Agathem. i. 1 ; Agatharch. De Ruhr. Mari, p. 48.) The fragments of his geographical work, which have come down to us, lead us to suppose that, besides the provinces of the Persian empire, he visited the coasts of the Euxine, Thrace, the whole of Greece, Oenotria,and even Liguria, Spain, and Libya, though of the last-mentioned countries he may have seen little more than the coasts. The time during which he was engaged in these travels cannot be accurately determined, though it must have been previous to the revolt of the lonians, that is, previous to B. c. 500, for after that event the war between the Greeks and Persians, as well as the advanced age of Hecataeus, would have thrown too many difficulties in his way ; and it further appears that he was well acquainted with the ex- tent and resources of the Persian empire at the time when his countrymen contemplated the revolt from Persia. (Herod, v. 36.) His geographical work, moreover, must have been written after the year B. c. 524, since in one of the extant fragments (140,ed.Muller)he speaks of Boryza in Thrace as a Persian town, which it did not become till that year. HECATAEUS. The only events in the life of Hecataeus of which we have any definite knowledge, are the part he took in the insurrection of the lonians against the Persians. When Aristagoras was planning the re- volt of the lonians. and all those whom he consulted agreed with him, Hecataeus was the only one who dissuaded his countrymen from such a rash undertak- ing, explaining to them the extent of the enemy's empire and his power. When this advice was dis- regarded, he exiiorted them at least to provide themselves with a naval force, and for this purpose to make use of the treasures amassed in the temple at Branchidae. But this opinion also was overruled by the sanguine lonians (Herod, v. 36), and the lonians revolted without being prepared to meet the enemy or to protect themselves. Subsequently, when Artaphernes and Otanes had invaded Ionia and Aeolis, and taken the towns of Clazomenae and Cuma, Aristagoras, who had brought about the misfortunes without the courage to endure them, meditated upon flight either to Sardinia or to Myr- cinus. Hecataeus advised him to do neither, but to take up a fortified position in the neighbouring island of Leros, and there to watch the issue of the events. (Herod, v. 124, 125.) This advice was rejected again, but the conduct of Hecataeus had been throughout th.it of a Avise and experienced man. Even after the fall of Ionia under the strokes of the Persians, he did not desert his countrymen ; for we are told that he was sent as ambassador to Artaphernes, and prevailed upon the satrap to win the confidence of the lonians by a mild treatment. (Diod. Fragm. Vat. p. 41, ed. Dindorf.) After this we hear no more of Hecataeus, but the little we know of him is enough to justify the high praise which some of the ancients bestow upon him in mentioning him along with the greatest men. (Era- tosth. ap. Strah. i. p. 7, xiv. p, 635 ; Aelian, V. H. xiii. 20 ; Hermog. De Gen. divend. ii. 12.) Hecataeus deposited the results of his travels and studies in two great works ; one geographical, entitled IlepfoSos 777?, or n€pt7777j(ris, and the other historical, entitled rivcaKo'yiai^ or 'IcTTopiai. (Suid. s. V. 'EWdviKos, where the heading of the article is a mistake for 'EKaraios.) The passage of Suidas compared with one of Strabo (i. p. 7 ) clearly shows that Hecataeus wrote only two works, and that the other names or titles we meet with refer to subdivisions of the geographical work. The latter consisted of two parts, one of which contained a description of Europe, and the other of Asia, Egypt, and Libya. Both parts appear to liave been subdivided into smaller sections ; thus we find one section belonging to the first part referred to under the name of Hellespontus (Steph. Byz. s. V. TereSos), and others belonging to the second part, under the titles of AtoAt/ca, Uepii^yrja-is Alyvrr- rov^ and Tl^piriyqins AiSvrjs. (Steph. Byz. s. vv. 'A/xa^aveiov, Air]§pis, 'EKeveios). It is not easy to determine the order in which Hecataeus described the different countries, and consequently also the order in which the fragments still extant should be arranged. The mode in which he treated his sub- jects may still be seen from some of the longer frag- ments : he first mentioned the name of the people, then the towns they inhabited, and sometimes he gave an account of their foundation and of any thing that was remarkable in them. The distances of the places from one another seem to have been care- fully marked. Hecataeus was the first histoiical writer who exercised his own judgment on the