SOURCE: "The Composition of the History of Herodotus," in Classical Philology, Vol. LII, No. 1, January, 1958, pp. 9-19.

In the following essay, Lattimore, a noted classicist, explores a series of textual and structural problems in the History. He provides a detailed analysis of Herodotus's compositional methods and considers the constraints on writing and historical research that Herodotus faced.

The general problem. Concerning the composition of the History of Herodotus, one must choose between two general propositions. Either Herodotus wrote his book so that the parts always stood substantially in the order in which we now have them; or he did not. If we believe he did, we shall be more persuasive if we can show that this was, a priori, the more likely way for him to compose his work, and if we can present internal evidence in favor of a continuous forward process. If we believe that the...