Page:Thucydides, translated into English Vol 1.djvu/112

 CVlll THUCYDIDES by the credibility of his history, because in the one far more than in the other he is dependent on the conditions of his age. In this short note it is not intended to enter into the discussion of particular passages, but rather to urge two general principles : (i) that geographical accuracy is not to be expected from a writer of the age of Thucydides : (2) that the number of his inaccuracies show them to be attributable rather to his ignorance, than to the ignorance of later writers, or of ourselves. To attempt to reconcile the geography of Thucydides with facts may be the same error in kind, though not in degree, as to try and adapt the drive of Telemachus between Pylos and Sparta to the present condition of the country, or to seek on the sea-shore of Ithaca for the cave by which Odysseus was deposited. As the more fami- liar features of a scene are likely to be reproduced in the creations of the poet, so the ancient historian will roughly guess distances. But he may often make mistakes about a region with which he was unacquainted, and he will not always be able to judge what amount of description is required in order to place before his readers a just con- ception of a place or of a battle. There were no surveys of countries or measurements of distances in the age of Herodotus and Thucydides (except along the course of great roads such as the Persian highways), but only the proverbially uncertain measure of a day's journey or of a day's sail (see Thuc. ii. 97, and Arnold's note). There were no correct maps, but only rude delineations such as made Herodotus laugh (iv. 36). The eye was the judge of the distance across a strait or across the entrance of a harbour. Daily experience tells us how seldom the power of judging distances is found in any one who has not been trained by long habit. Some of the errors or misleading expressions in Thucydides which have suggested the above remarks are the following : —