LOGOGRAPHI (X&yos, ypiic/w, writers of prose histories or tales)

This article appears in Volume V16, Page 919 of the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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LOGOGRAPHI (X&yos, ypiic/w, writers of prose histories or tales) , the name given by modern scholars to the Greek historiographers before Herodotus.l Thucydides, however, applies the term to all his own predecessors, and it is therefore usual to make a distinction between the older and the younger logographers. Their representatives, with one exception, came from

Ionia

IONIA

and its islands, which from their position were most favour-ably situated for the acquisition of knowledge concerning the distant countries of

East

EAST
EAST, ALFRED (1849- )

and West. They wrote in the Ionic dialect, in what was called the unperiodic style, and preserved the poetic character of their epic model. Their criticism amounts to nothing more than a crude attempt to rationalize the current legends and traditions connected with the founding of cities, the genealogies of ruling families, and the manners and customs of individual peoples. Of scientific criticism there is no trace whatever. The first of these historians was probably Cadmus of Miletus (who lived, if at all, in the early part of the 6th century), the earliest writer of

prose

PROSE

, author of a

work

WORK

on the founding of his native city and the colonization of

Ionia

IONIA

(so Suidas); Pherecydes of Leros, who died about 400, is generally considered the last. Mention may also be made of the following: Hecataeus of Miletus (550476); Acusilaus of Argos,2 who paraphrased in

prose

PROSE

(correcting the tradition where it seemed necessary) the genealogical works of Hesiod in the Ionic dialect; he con-fined his attention to the prehistoric period, and made no attempt at a real history; Charon of Lampsacus (c. 450), author of histories of Persia, Libya, and Ethiopia, of annals (ibpor) of his native town with lists of the prytaneis and archons, and of the chronicles of Lacedaemonian kings; Xanthus of Sardis in

Lydia

LYDIA

(c. 450), author of a history of

Lydia

LYDIA

, one of the

chief

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

authorities used by Nicolaus of Damascus (fl. during the time of

Augustus

AUGUSTUS (a name 1 derived from Lat. augeo, increase, i.e. venerable, majestic, Gr. Ee0avr6s)

); Hellanicus of Mytilene; Stesimbrotus of Thasos, opponent of Pericles and reputed author of a political pamphlet on Themistocles, Thucydides and Pericles; Hippys and Glaucus, both of Rhegium, the first the author of histories of Italy and Sicily, the second of a treatise on ancient poets and musicians, used by Harpocration and Plutarch; Damastes of Sigeum, pupil of Hellanicus, author of genealogies of the combatants before Troy (an ethnographic and statistical

list

LIST (O.E.
lisle
- LISLE, ALICE (c. 1614-1685)
, a Teutonic word, cf. Dut. lust, Ger. Leiste, adapted in Ital. lista and Fr.
lisle
- LISLE, ALICE (c. 1614-1685)
)
LIST, FRIEDRICH (1789-1846)

), of short treatises on poets, sophists, and geographical subjects.
On the early Greek historians, see G. Busolt, GriechischeGeschichte (1893), i. 147-153; 'C. Wachsmuth, Einleitung in das Studium der alten Geschichte (1895); A. Schafer, Abriss der Quellenkunde der griechischen and romischen Geschichte (ed. H. Nissen, 1889) ; J. B. Bury, Ancient Greek Historians (1909), lecture i.; histories of Greek literature by Muller-Donaldson (ch. 18) and W. Mute (bk, iv. ch. 3), where the little that is known concerning the life and writings of the logographers is exhaustively discussed. The fragments will be found, with Latin notes, translation, prolegomena, and copious indexes, in C. W. Mailer's Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum (18411870).
See also GREECE: History, Ancient (section, " Authorities ").
1 The word is also used of the writers of speeches for the use of the contending parties in the law courts, who were forbidden to employ

advocates

ADVOCATES, FACULTY OF

.
1 There is some doubt as to whether this Acusilaus was of Beloponnesian or Boeotian Argos. Possibly there were two of the name. For an example of the method of Acusilaus see Bury, op. cit. p. 19.

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