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Of the ardour with which he was inspired in the cause of liberty, we have strong and unequivocal testimony. First, in his exile from his country, whether voluntary or not; in various animated expressions to this effect, scattered through his books; but best of all in his subsequent conduct. Understanding that a party was formed against Lygdamis, he left Samos, and joined the friends of freedom. By their common exertions, the tyrant was expelled, and the public liberty restored. But, as not unfrequently happens on similar occasions, contentions arose, factions were formed, and Herodotus was a second time compelled to leave his country. He now visited Greece again, which became the noble theatre of his glory. It was the time of celebrating the Olympic games, and he did not omit so favourable an opportunity of reciting his history to the illustrious audience. It is probable that he only read the introductory parts, or certain particular and selected portions; but there must have been something very captivating in his style, some regular and connected series of interesting history, some superior and striking character of genius: for we are informed that he was listened to with universal delight and applause; and we are farther gratified with the curious anecdote of Thucydides, which has so often been re

lated.

lated.

He

This celebrated personage was present at the great solemnity, with his father Olorus, and on hearing the composition of Herodotus, discovered the seeds of those exalted talents which afterwards made his name immortal. After listening to the father of history with the most composed and serious attention, he burst into tears. was then no more than fifteen years old; and Herodotus, observing his emotion, exclaimed to Olorus, οργα η φύσις τε υια σε προς τα μαθηματα Your son burns with an ardour for science. This is said to have happened in the eighty-first Olympiad. Twelve years afterwards, the Historian read a continuation, or second portion of his work, to the Athenians, at the feast of the Panathenæa. The citizens of Athens, not satisfied with heaping praises upon him, presented him with ten talents, which gift was solemnly ratified by a decree of the people. The following account of this memorable incident is taken from Lucian, who has a long and curious dissertation on the subject of Herodotus." Herodotus, having left Caria to

go

into

Greece,

There are some writers who assert that Herodotus did not recite his history at Athens at all, but at Olympus. He might recite it at both places. Having been present for the purpose at Olympus first, he might afterwards proceed to Athens to appear at the Panathenæa. This last place was peculiarly proper, for crowns and other rewards were there conferred upon the conquerors.

Greece, employed his thoughts in contriving methods, by which in a small time, without much trouble, he might acquire a large stock of glory and reputation for his person and works. He foresaw that it would be a tedious and fatiguing task to go to the respective places, and recite them to the Athenians, Corinthians, Argives, and Lacedæmonians. He imagined that it would be more expedient to find them all assembled together. It happened very luckily that they were then all going to celebrate the Olympian games: he concluded this time very proper for the execution of his design, and that he had met with the opportunity which he was in quest of, for he should now find a vast concourse of the principal and most select people of all Greece. He appeared then on the theatre, not as a bare spectator, but in order to commence an actor in the Olympic games. None were ignorant of the name of Herodotus, nor was there a single person in Greece who had not either seen him at the Olympics, or heard those speak of him that came from thence: so that in what place soever he came, the inhabitants pointed with their finger, saying, this is that Herodotus who has written the Persian wars in the Ionic dialect, this is he who has celebrated our victories. Thus the harvest

which he reaped from his histories was, the receiving in one assembly the general applause of

all

all Greece, and the sounding his fame, not only in one place, and by a single trumpet, but in all the cities of Greece, by as many mouths as there had been spectators in that assembly."

The next incident of this author's life of which we have to speak, may at first sight appear inconsistent and extraordinary. Honoured as all illustrious strangers were at Athens, and favourable as the opportunity must there have been, to have prosecuted his studies, and to have indulged his ardour for science, he might reasonably have been expected to fix his residence at Athens; but this we find was not the case. In the beginning of the following Olympiad, during the magistracy of Callimachus, he joined himself to a colony sent by the Athenians to form a settlement in Magna Græcia: whether he was prompted on this occasion by that fondness for travelling, which always distinguished him, or whether he was induced to take this step from motives of private connection and attachment, is totally unknown. It is certain that Lysias, who afterwards became so famous as an orator, was one of those who accompanied him. At Thurium, which was

the

Written also Thurii and Thuriæ; it is situated in the Tarentine Gulf, in Italy, and almost upon the spot where formerly stood Sybaris, so infamous for effeminate

manners.

the place then colonized, it is more than probable that he spent the remainder of his days, though there are some who assert that he died at Pella in Macedonia. Pella however gave no name to Herodotus, but became afterwards famous for being long the residence of Euripides, who from this circumstance has frequently been called the Bard of Pella: an appellation which our poet Collins happily introduces in his beautiful Ode to Pity:

By Pella's Bard, a magic name,

By all the griefs his thought could frame,

Receive my humble rite;
Long, Pity, let the nations view
Thy sky-worn robes of tenderest hue,
And eyes of dewy light.

Herodotus, in like manner, from his long continuance at Thurium, obtained the epithet of the Thurian. This appellation is no where to be found more early than in the works of Aristotle. Avienus, Julian, Pliny, and others, call him the Thurian; while Strabo, of greater antiquity than any of these, Aristotle excepted, in his fourteenth book, expressly calls him the Halicarnassian, adding however, that he was afterwards named the Thurian, because he removed with a colony to that place. The passage in Strabo is this: "Herodotus, the Historian,

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