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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 December 2013
In an article published in the last volume of this Journal, Mr. How discusses the problems of the Parian expedition of Miltiades and the Battle of Marathon, in the light of recent views. The version given by Nepos of these events I subjected to an analysis in an article published just before the war and I came to certain conclusions in regard to the sources used by the Roman historian. Mr. How agrees with me in accepting the general view that Ephorus is the chief inspiration of Nepos. He refuses, however, to credit Ephorus with any more special knowledge than that which a student of Herodotus might acquire. Ephorus is, in fact, the rationaliser, and a poor one at that, of Herodotus.
The problem raised by Mr. How is whether we are going to accept the account Herodotus gives of Marathon and Paros or the rationalised version of Ephorus. Without hesitation Mr. How accepts Herodotus and rejects Ephorus root and branch. Here I must associate myself entirely with Mr. How in his appreciation of Herodotus but cannot help retaining a preference for some of the elements of the Ephorus-Nepos version of events at Lemnos, Marathon and Paros.
1 Klio, 1914, pp. 69–90.
2 xii. 25.
3 B.C.H. 1912, p. 330.
4 The advantages of the policy of holding the Dardanelles were made obvious to Athens by the exploits of Histiaeus and the Lesbians at Byzantium (Hdt. vi. 5). The coin types of the Gallipoli peninsula of the time o Miltiades support the view that he was acting on authority from Athens.
5 The Scholiast on Pindar suggests that Ephorus followed Pindar in his account of Gelo of Syracuse: F.G.H. i. p. 264.
6 See p. 87 of my article.