The History of Herodotus, volume 1 | Page 4

translator, that is in nearly five hundred places altogether; and the results, when they are worth observing, are recorded in the notes. At the same time, by the suggestion of Dr. Stein, I re-collated a large part of the third book in the MS. which is commonly referred to as F (i.e. Florentinus), called by Stein C, and I examined this MS. also in a certain number of other places. It should be understood that wherever in the notes I mention the reading of any particular MS. by name, I do so on my own authority.
The notes have been confined to a tolerably small compass. Their purpose is, first, in cases where the text is doubtful, to indicate the reading adopted by the translator and any other which may seem to have reasonable probability, but without discussion of the authorities; secondly, where the rendering is not quite literal (and in other cases where it seemed desirable), to quote the words of the original or to give a more literal version; thirdly, to add an alternative version in cases where there seems to be a doubt as to the true meaning; and lastly, to give occasionally a short explanation, or a reference from one passage of the author to another.
For the orthography of proper names reference may be made to the note prefixed to the index. No consistent system has been adopted, and the result will therefore be open to criticism in many details; but the aim has been to avoid on the one hand the pedantry of seriously altering the form of those names which are fairly established in the English language of literature, as distinguished from that of scholarship, and on the other hand the absurdity of looking to Latin rather than to Greek for the orthography of the names which are not so established. There is no intention to put forward any theory about pronunciation.
The index of proper names will, it is hoped, be found more complete and accurate than those hitherto published. The best with which I was acquainted I found to have so many errors and omissions[3] that I was compelled to do the work again from the beginning. In a collection of more than ten thousand references there must in all probability be mistakes, but I trust they will be found to be few.
My acknowledgments of obligation are due first to Dr. Stein, both for his critical work and also for his most excellent commentary, which I have had always by me. After this I have made most use of the editions of Kr��ger, B?hr, Abicht, and (in the first two books) Mr. Woods. As to translations, I have had Rawlinson's before me while revising my own work, and I have referred also occasionally to the translations of Littlebury (perhaps the best English version as regards style, but full of gross errors), Taylor, and Larcher. In the second book I have also used the version of B. R. reprinted by Mr. Lang: of the first book of this translation I have access only to a fragment written out some years ago, when the British Museum was within my reach. Other particular obligations are acknowledged in the notes. ----------
NOTES TO PREFACE
[1] See the remarks of P.-L. Courier (on Larcher's version) in the preface to his specimens of a new translation of Herodotus (/?uvres compl��tes de P.-L. Courier/, Bruxelles, 1828).
[2] Mr. Woods, for example, in his edition of the first book (published in 1873) gives a list of readings for the first and second books, in which he almost invariably prefers the authority of Gronovius to that of Stein, where their reports differ. In so doing he is wrong in all cases (I think) except one, namely i. 134 {to degomeno}. He is wrong, for examine, in i. 189, where the MS. has {touto}, i. 196 {an agesthai}, i. 199 {odon}, ii. 15 {te de}, ii. 95 {up auto}, ii. 103 {kai prosotata}, ii. 124 {to addo} (without {dao}), ii. 181 {no}. Abicht also has made several inaccurate statements, e.g. i. 185, where the MS. has {es ton Euphreten}, and vii. 133 {Xerxes}.
[3] For example in the index of proper names attached to Stein's annotated edition (Berlin, 1882), to which I am under obligation, having checked my own by it, I find that I have marked upwards of two hundred mistakes or oversights: no doubt I have been saved by it from at least as many.

THE HISTORY OF HERODOTUS

BOOK I
THE FIRST BOOK OF THE HISTORIES, CALLED CLIO
This is the Showing forth of the Inquiry of Herodotus of Halicarnassos, to the end that[1] neither the deeds of men may be forgotten by lapse of time, nor the works[2] great and marvellous, which have been produced some by Hellenes and some by Barbarians, may lose their renown; and especially