The Historians' History of the World 04

This anomaly is, perhaps, partly explained in the fact that Arrian did explicitly follow Xenophon as a master, since one never expects to rank the follower on a par with the originator. But the truer explanation is probably that Arrian lived at a late period, after the glory of Greece, as the literary centre of the world, had quite departed; and it has been customary to regard all works of this later period, with their necessary alterations of style, representing the time of degeneracy of the Greek language, as things to be looked at askance by lovers of that language in its purity. Then, too, perhaps, the very importance of Arrian’s subject may have been detrimental to the permanent popularity of his work. There was no possible reason why any other writer should take up in great detail the story of the Anabasis of the Ten Thousand after Xenophon, since that story, much as if it had been a mere romance, owed its importance almost entirely to the qualities of style of the original narrator. But the case of Alexander was quite different. Numberless writers, as was most natural, had told his story in the times immediately after his death. It was inevitable that so amazing a history should continue to excite the interest of mankind throughout all time and should be retold again and again by countless generations of historians. Even had the biography of Arrian proved in all respects comprehensive and satisfactory, later generations must have demanded that the story should be retold after the manner of their own times, but in point of fact, the biography of Arrian, important as it is, is by no means altogether comprehensive. It contains, to be sure, all incidents which its author was satisfied were authentic, but it explicitly omitted various other incidents, which, whether true or false, must have an abiding interest from the very fact of having been associated with the name of Alexander.

Each succeeding generation of historians must then judge for itself, as is the prerogative of the critic, among the various contradictory stories that have come down to us, and must weigh anew the evidence of this side or that, and make for itself a new story of Alexander.

Assmann, W., Handbuch der Allgemeinen Geschichte, Brunswick, 1853.

Bachelet, J. A. F., Histoire ancienne grecque, Paris, 1883.—Baraibar (in collaboration with Menendez Pelayo) Poetas liricos Griegos, Madrid, 1884.—Becker, Wilhelm A., Charicles, or Illustrations of the Private Life of the Ancient Greeks (translated by Frederick Metcalfe), London, 1854.—Beloch

, J., Griechische Geschichte, Strasburg, 1893-1899, 2 vols.—Bent, J. T., The Cyclades: Life among the Insular Greeks, London, 1885.—Berens, E. M., Myths and Legends of Ancient Greece, London, 1879.—Berg, van den, Petite Histoire des Grecs, Paris, 1880.—Bergk, T., Griechische Literaturgeschichte, Berlin, 1872-1894.—

Bernhardy, G., Grundriss der Griechischen Litteratur, Halle, 1836, rev. ed. 1876-92.—Berthelot, A., Les grandes scènes de l’histoire grecque, Paris, 1889.—Blackie, J. S., Horæ Hellenicæ, London and Edinburgh, 1874.—Blanchard, Th., Les Mavroyeni, Paris, 1893.—Bluemner

, Hugo, Home Life of Ancient Greeks (trans. by A. Zimmern), London, 1895; Technologie und Terminologie der Gewerbe und Künste bei Griechen u. Römern, Leipsic, 1887.—Boeckh, A., Public Economy of the Athenians (trans. by A. Lamb), Boston, 1857.

August Boeckh, born at Carlsruhe, November 24, 1785; died in Berlin, August 3, 1867. He published an edition of Pindar with a continuous commentary, a Latin translation, and a treatise on Greek Versification, (1811); also Metrological Investigations concerning the Weights, Coins, and Measures of Antiquity (1838); A Dissertation on the Silver Mines of Laurium in Attica, and other treatises. He began the Corpus Inscriptionum Grecarum, continued by his pupil Franz and still unfinished. His most important work on the Public Economy of the Athenians, while necessarily somewhat antiquated, retains its original importance in many features, and as a repository of knowledge drawn from the classical writers has not been superseded.