Page:History of Greece Vol I.djvu/521

 PARTITION OF PAST TIME BY VAERO. 439 Taking the commencement of true or objective history at the point indicated by Varro, I still consider the mythical and histor- ical periods to be separated by a wider gap than he would havo admitted. To select any one year as an absolute point of com- mencement, is of course not to be understood literally : but in point of fact, this is of very little importance in reference to the present question, seeing that the great mythical events the sieges of Thebes and Troy, the Argonautic expedition, the Kaly- donian boar-hunt, the Return of the Herakleids, etc. are all placed long anterior to the first Olympiad, by those who have apph'ed chronological boundaries to the mythical narratives. The period immediately preceding the first Olympiad is one exceed- ingly barren of events ; the received chronology recognizes four hundred years, and Herodotus admitted five hundred years, from that date back to the Trojan war. inum principio usque ad cataclysmnm priorem, quod propter ignorantiam vocatur aSrjhov. Secundum, a cataclysmo priore ad Olympiadem primam, quod quia in eo multa fabulosa referuntur, Mylhicon nominator. Tertinra n primal Olympiade ad nos ; quod dicitur Historiccn, quia res in co gest rcris historiis continentur." To the same purpose Africanue, ap. Eusebium, Praep. Er. xx. p. 487: )JLexpi pev 'Ofa>nma6uv, ov6sv d/cpt/Jcf laroprjTai rolf 'EAA^ffi, nuvruv ovyc*- v, nai Karti pqiev ai-roif TUV Trpb rot) ovpfuvovvTuv, etc.