PREFACE

Summary

The main object of the present work is to show what light has been thrown upon the earlier books of “the Father of History” by recent discoveries in Greece and the Levant, and, at the same time, to emphasize the fact, which Herodotos perceived, that Greek history and civilisation are but a continuation of the history and civilisation of the ancient East. The rapid progress that has been made of late years in the decipherment of the Egyptian and Assyrian inscriptions, the active exploration and unexpected discoveries that have been made in Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, Syria, and Asia Minor, the excavations on the site of Carchemish, and the recognition of the important part once played by the Hittites, have revolutionised our conception of early history, and given us a knowledge of the religion and culture, the languages and inner life, of the old nations of the Orient which Herodotos and his contemporaries did not and could not possess. In studies which are growing day by day, and continually revealing some new fact or correcting some previous misconception, it is well to take stock of our existing knowledge every now and then, and see exactly what is the point to which our researches have brought us. The present volume, accordingly, deals with the history rather than with the language of Herodotos, and with that history only in so far as it bears upon the East.