The histories of Herodotus;

THIS
HERODOTUS
BOOK I
CLIO
is a publication of the researches of Herodotus of
Halicarnassus, in order that the actions of men may
not be effaced by time, nor the great and wondrous
deeds displayed by both Greeks and barbarians 1 deprived
of renown—and among the rest, for what cause they
waged war upon each other.
The learned among the Persians assert that the Phoenicians
for that they having
were the original authors of the quarrel ;
migrated from that which is called the Red Sea to the Mediterranean,
2 and having settled in the country which they now
inhabit, forthwith applied themselves to distant voyages ; and
that having exported Egyptian and Assyrian
they touched at other places, and also at Argos.
merchandise,
Now Argos
at that period in every respect surpassed all those states which
are now comprehended under the general appellation of
Greece. 3 They say, that on their arrival at Argos, the Phoenicians
exposed their merchandise to sale, and that on the
fifth or sixth day after their arrival, and when they had almost
disposed of their cargo, a great number of women came down
to the sea-shore, and among them the king's daughter, whose
name, as the Greeks also say, was Io, daughter of Inachus.
1 By barbarians the Greeks meant all who were not sprung from themselves—all
foreigners.
4 The Phoenicians passed over-land from the Red Sea to the Mediterranean,
which in the text and in other Grecian writers is called " this sea."
8 The region known by the name of Hellas or Greece, in the time of
Herodotus, was, previous to the Trojan war, and indeed long afterward,
only discriminated by the names of its different inhabitants. Homer
speaks of the Danaans, Argives, Achaians, etc., but never gives these
people the general name of Greeks.—Larcher.