Our Earlier Historians of Greece. PAGE Definite and indefinite problems 1 Examples in theology and metaphysics 1 Examples in literature 2 The case of history generally 3 Special claims of Greek history 4 The claims of Rome and of the Jews 4 Greek influences in our religion 4 Increasing materials 5 Plan of this Essay 6 Universal histories 6 Gillies 7 Effects of the French Revolution on the writers of the time 8 Mitford writes a Tory history of Greece 8 He excites splendid refutations 9 Thirlwall: his merits 10 his coldness 11 his fairness and accuracy, but without enthusiasm 11 Clinton's Fasti: his merits 12 Contrast of Grote's life 13 His theory Radicalism 13 The influences of his time 14 To be compared with Gibbon 14 His eloquence; his panegyric on democracy 15 Objections: that democracies are short-lived 16 that the Athenian democrat was a slave-holder and a ruler over subjects 16 The Athenian not the ideal of the Greeks 17 Grote's treatment of the despots 18 Their perpetual recurrence in the Greek world 18 Advantages of despotism 18 Good despots not infrequent 19 Grote a practical politician 20 His treatment of Alexander the Great 20 Contrast of Thirlwall 20 Grote ignores the later federations, and despises their history 21 His treatment of the early legends 22 Even when plausible, they may be fictions 22 Thirlwall's view less extreme 23 Influence of Niebuhr on both historians 23 Neither of them visited Greece, which later historians generally regard as essential 24 Ernst Curtius and Victor Duruy 25 The value of autopsy in verifying old authors 25 Example in the theatre of Athens 25 Its real size 26 No landscape for its background 26 Greek scenery and art now accessible to all 27

Recent Treatment of the Greek Myths. The newer histories 28 Not justifiable without particular reasons 28 Max Duncker 28 Not suited to English readers 29 Busolt and Holm 29 Return to Grote 30 Holm's postulate 30 The modern attitude 31 Pure invention a rare occurrence 31 Plausible fiction therefore not an adequate cause 32 Cases of deliberate invention, at Pergamum, which breed general suspicion of marvellous stories 32 Example of a trustworthy legend from Roman history 33 Niebuhr, Arnold, Mommsen 34 The rex sacrorum at Rome 34 The king-archon at Athens 35 Legends of foreign immigrants 35 Corroborative evidence of art, but not of language 35 Corroboration of legends in architecture 37 Explanation of myths by the solar theory 37 The analogy of Indian and Persian mythology, expounded by Professor Max Müller, founded on very wide learning 38 long since shown inadequate, because it implies sentimental savages, which is contrary to our experience 39 K. O. Müller's contribution 40 The transference of myths 41 Old anecdotes doing fresh duty 41 Example from the Trojan legend 41 but not therefore false 42 The contribution of Dr. Schliemann 42 History not an exact science 43 Historical value of the Homeric poems 44 Mycen? preserved in legend only 44 General teaching of the epic poems 44 Social life in Greece 45 Alleged artificiality of the poems 45 Examples from the Iliad 45 not corroborated by recent discoveries 46 Fick's account of the Homeric dialect 46 Difficulties in the theory 47 Analogies in its favour 48 Its application to the present argument 48 Illustration from English poetry 49 The use of stock epithets 49 High excellence incompatible with artificiality 50 The Homeric poems therefore mainly natural 50 but only generally true 51 and therefore variously judged by various minds 52

Theoretical Chronology. Transition to early history 53 The Asiatic colonies 53 Late authorities for the details 54 The colonization of the West 54 The original authority 55 What was nobility in early Greece? 55 Macedonian kings 56 Romans 56 Hellenistic cities 56 Glory of short pedigrees 56 The sceptics credulous in chronology 57 The current scheme of early dates 57 The so-called Olympic register 58 Plutarch's account of it 58 The date of Pheidon of Argos 59 revised by E. Curtius 60 since abandoned 60 The authority of Ephorus 61 not first-rate 62 Archias, the founder of Syracuse 62 associated with legends of Corcyra and Croton 63 Thucydides counts downward from this imaginary date 64 Antiochus of Syracuse 64 not trustworthy 65 his dates illusory 66 though supported by Thucydides 66 who is not omniscient 66 Credulity in every sceptic 67 Its probable occurrence in ancient critics 68 Value of Hippias' work 68 Even Eratosthenes counts downward 69 Clinton's warning 69 Summary of the discussion 69 The stage of pre-Homeric remains 70 Prototype of the Greek temple 70 Degrees in this stage 71 Probably not so old as is often supposed 72 Mr. Petrie's evidence 72 The epic stage 72 The earliest historical stage 73 The gap between Homer and Archilochus 73 Old lists suspicious, and often fabricated 74 No chronology of the eighth centuryB.C. to be trusted 75 Cases of real antiquity 76