DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9184#0032
12
New Chapters in Greek History. [Chai\ L
critics were divided on the question whether the testimony
of Herodotus or that of Ctesias was preferable in regard
to the ancient history of the East, and the controversy
would doubtless have been periodically revived, the " last
new view " being on one side or the other alternately, but
for the possibilities of verification now offered by cunei-
form tablets, which have decided for all time that Ctesias
was the impostor and Herodotus the true man.
But with regard to the value of Greek inscriptions, the
opinion of the learned is not so unanimous ; and it has
sometimes been proclaimed with authority that Greek in-
scriptions are of little value for Greek history. It is easy
enough to understand how such an opinion could arise in
the mind of a scholar who should approach Greek history
only from the literary side. And it has thus much of truth
in it, that it is but seldom that we can quote a statement
of Herodotus or Thucydides, and then print on the oppo-
site page the text of a Greek inscription which disproves
that statement. Such instances can be found. For
example, Grote rejected on the ground of the silence of
Thucydides, the assertion of some ancient authorities that
the tribute which the Athenians exacted from their allies
was doubled towards the end of the Peloponnesian war.
Nor could the question between Thucydides and the other
writers have ever been settled but for the testimony of one
of the inscriptions published by Kohler in his Urkunden
zur Geschichte des DeliscJi-AttiscJien Bundes, which proves
beyond question that such a raising of the tribute did
occur. And the new fact tells against Grote's view of the
character of the Athenian government.
In regard to the services of inscriptions to the bone and
framework of Greek history it is sufficient to refer to these
tribute-inscriptions or to the Parian Chronicle now pre-
served at Oxford. Yet it is generally allowed that the
corrections in historical fact due to inscriptions are really
New Chapters in Greek History. [Chai\ L
critics were divided on the question whether the testimony
of Herodotus or that of Ctesias was preferable in regard
to the ancient history of the East, and the controversy
would doubtless have been periodically revived, the " last
new view " being on one side or the other alternately, but
for the possibilities of verification now offered by cunei-
form tablets, which have decided for all time that Ctesias
was the impostor and Herodotus the true man.
But with regard to the value of Greek inscriptions, the
opinion of the learned is not so unanimous ; and it has
sometimes been proclaimed with authority that Greek in-
scriptions are of little value for Greek history. It is easy
enough to understand how such an opinion could arise in
the mind of a scholar who should approach Greek history
only from the literary side. And it has thus much of truth
in it, that it is but seldom that we can quote a statement
of Herodotus or Thucydides, and then print on the oppo-
site page the text of a Greek inscription which disproves
that statement. Such instances can be found. For
example, Grote rejected on the ground of the silence of
Thucydides, the assertion of some ancient authorities that
the tribute which the Athenians exacted from their allies
was doubled towards the end of the Peloponnesian war.
Nor could the question between Thucydides and the other
writers have ever been settled but for the testimony of one
of the inscriptions published by Kohler in his Urkunden
zur Geschichte des DeliscJi-AttiscJien Bundes, which proves
beyond question that such a raising of the tribute did
occur. And the new fact tells against Grote's view of the
character of the Athenian government.
In regard to the services of inscriptions to the bone and
framework of Greek history it is sufficient to refer to these
tribute-inscriptions or to the Parian Chronicle now pre-
served at Oxford. Yet it is generally allowed that the
corrections in historical fact due to inscriptions are really