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EPHORUS (c. 400–330 B.C.)

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Originally appearing in Volume V09, Page 678 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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EPHORUS (c. 400–330 B.C.) , of Cyme in See also:Aeolis, in See also:Asia See also:Minor, See also:Greek historian. Together with the historian See also:Theopompus he was a See also:pupil of Isocrates, in whose school he attended two courses of See also:rhetoric. But he does not seem to have made much progress in the See also:art, and it is said to have been at the See also:suggestion of Isocrates himself that he took up See also:literary See also:composition and the study of See also:history. The See also:fruit of his labours was his `IrTopiaL in 29 books, the first universal history, beginning with the return of the See also:Heraclidae to See also:Peloponnesus, as the first well-attested See also:historical event. The whole See also:work was edited by his son Demophilus, who added a 36th See also:book, containing a See also:summary description of the Social See also:War and ending with the taking of See also:Perinthus (340) by See also:Philip of Macedon (cf. Diod. Sic. xvi. 14 with xvi. 76). Each book was See also:complete in itself, and had a See also:separate See also:title and See also:preface. It is clear that Ephorus made See also:critical use of the best authorities, and his work, highly praised and much read, was freely See also:drawn upon by Diodorus Siculus 1 and other compilers.

See also:

Strabo (viii. p. 332) attaches much importance to his See also:geographical investigations, and praises him for being the first to separate the historical from the merely geographical See also:element. See also:Polybius (xii. 25 g) while crediting him with a knowledge of the conditions of See also:naval warfare, ridicules his description of the battles of See also:Leuctra and See also:Mantineia as showing See also:ignorance of the nature of See also:land operations. He was further to be commended for See also:drawing (though not always) a See also:sharp See also:line of demarcation between the mythical and historical (Strabo ix. p. 423); he even recognized that a profusion of detail, though lending corroborative force to accounts of See also:recent events, is ground for suspicion in reports of far-distant history. His See also:style was high-flown and artificial, as was natural considering his See also:early training, and he frequently sacrificed truth to rhetoric effect; but, according to See also:Dionysius of See also:Halicarnassus, he and Theopompus were the only historical writers whose See also:language was accurate and finished. Other See also:works attributed to him were: —A See also:Treatise on Discoveries; Respecting See also:Good and Evil Things; On Remarkable Things in Various Countries (it is doubtful whether these were separate works, or merely extracts from the Histories) ; A Treatise on my See also:Country, on the history and antiquities of Cyme, and an See also:essay On Style, his only rhetorical work, which is occasionally mentioned by the rhetorician See also:Theon. Nothing is known of his See also:life, except the statement in See also:Plutarch that he declined to visit the See also:court of See also:Alexander the See also:Great. Fragments in C. W. See also:Muller, Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum, i., with critical introduction on the life and writings of Ephorus; see J.

A. Klugmann, De Ephoro historico (186o) ; C. A. Volquardsen, Untersuchungen fiber See also:

die Quellen der griechischen and sicilischen Geschichten bei Diodor. xi.-xvi. (1868) ; and specially J. B. See also:Bury, See also:Ancient Greek Historians (1909); E. Schwartz, in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyc. s.v.; and See also:article See also:GREECE: History: Ancient Authorities.

End of Article: EPHORUS (c. 400–330 B.C.)

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