The Apollodoran "Akmai" of Hellanicus and Herodotus Mosshammer, Alden A Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Spring 1973; 14, 1; ProQuest pg. 5 The Apollodoran Akmai of Hellanicus and Herodotus Alden A. M osshammer OUR CHIEF EVIDENCE for the ancient chronographic tradition on Hellanicus, Herodotus and Thucydides is that famous passage where Gellius (15.23), citing Pamphila, groups the three historians together and assigns them an age at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War of sixty-five, fifty-three and forty years, respec­ tively.I Pamphila's authority has long been recognized as Apollodorus. The computation derives from his 'akme-method'.2 In the absence of fixed chronological data, Apollodorus computed a birth date for a person by assigning him an age of forty at the time of some event which might reasonably be considered to mark the aKf-L~ of his career. Thales reached his akme at the time of the famous solar eclipse (F 28), Periander when he became tyrant at Corinth (F 332), Pythagoras when he migrated from Samos to Italy (F 339). In the case of Thucydides, the ground of ApoUodorus' reckoning is transparent. According to Pamphila, Thucydides was forty years old at the beginning of the Peloponnesian War. That is, Apollodorus set Thucydides' akme in the first year of the war which he witnessed and recorded. Forty years old when the war broke out in 431 B.C., Thucydides was born in 471. It is not so immediately self-evident why Apollodorus dated the birth of Herodotus to 484 or that of Hellanicus to 496. According to the prevailing hypotheses, Hellanicus' akme was set in 456, approximately the midpoint of the Pentekontaetea, because of 1 Hellanicus, Herodotus, Thucydides, historiae scriptores, in isdem temporibus fere laude ingenti Jloruerunt et non nimis longe distantibus fuerunt aetatibus. Nam Hellanicus initio belli Pelo­ ponnesiaci fuisse quinque et sexaginta annos natus uidetur, Herodotus tres et quinquaginta, Thucydides quadraginta. Scriptum hoc est in libro undecimo Pamphilae (FHG 3.521 fr.7, Mi.iller). 2 Hermann Diels, "Chronologische Untersuchungen tiber Apollodors Chronika," RhM 31 (1876) 47ff. The fullest treatment of Apollodorus is that of Felix Jacoby. Apollodors Chronik (Philologische Untersuchungen 16, Berlin 1902); on Apollodorus' method, see especially pp.39-59. The main points are summarized in the commentary to FGrHist 244. Apollodorus is cited in the present study by reference to Jacoby's numbering of the fragments in FGrHist 244. The earlier work is cited as Chronik. 5 6 THE APOLLODORAN AKMAI Thucydides' criticism (1.97.2) of Hellanicus' treatment of that period. Herodotus flourished at the age of forty in 444 because Apollodorus supposed that he had participated in the colonization of Thurii in that year.3 These suggestions are not entirely satisfactory. The settlement of Thurii is not in itself an appropriate reference point for the akme of Herodotus. Herodotus' fame rested on his achievement as a writer, not a politician or constitutional innovator. Hellanicus wrote of events occurring as late as 406 (FGrHist 4 F 171). Apollodorus was clearly wrong in considering him older than Herodotus. The fact that he did so is likely to be of greater significance for the precise computation than is the near coincidence of the Apollodoran akme with the mid­ point of the Pentekontaetea. Finally, the prevailing hypotheses are based on exclusive reckoning. While it is possible that Pamphila used this method of counting, it is certain that Apollodorus did not. It is the purpose of the present study to argue for inclusive reckoning of the intervals and to account for the akmai and birth dates which result. As Jacoby had demonstrated, Apollodorus used the Attic year as his chronological standard. He accordingly reckoned with both termini included, as is natural for one who counts by archon years.' An Apollodoran akme thus represents a person's fortieth year-the pro­ verbial age of thirty-nine in our reckoning. Hellanicus was sixty-five years old at the beginning of the Pelo­ ponnesian War, Herodotus was fifty-three and Thucydides had reached his akme at the age of forty. The beginning of the PeloponnesianWar was one of the epochs of Eratosthenes (FGrHist 241 F 1) and Apollo­ dorus (F 61). Thucydides himself (2.2.1) dated the beginning of the war to the archonship of Pythodorus, and Apollodorus cannot have done otherwise. The archonship of Pythodorus corresponds to the year 432/1 in our reckoning. If Hellanicus was sixty-five in 432/1, he was born in 496/5 and reached his akme at the age of forty in 457/6, the intervals reckoned 8 Diels. op.cit. (supra n.2) 47-53. Jacoby. Chronik 278-79, FGrHist 244 F 7 Comm., if. RE suppl. II (1913) 224-30 s.v. HERODOT and the commentary to FGrHist 4 (Hellanicus). & Diels had used years B.C. and reckoned exclusively. Jacoby is careful to date by Attic years and count with both termini included. That Apollodorus did the same can be seen most clearly in his computations for Socrates. By our reckOning of Apollodorus' dates, Socrates lived for 68 years and 10 months. Yet Apollodorus states that he died at the age of 70. See Jacoby, Chronik 285, and FGrHist 244 F 34 Comm. ALDEN A. MOSSHAMMER 7 inclusively throughout. Similarly Herodotus, who was fifty-three in 432/1, was born in 484/3 and reached his akme in 445/4. Approaching the computation from Pamphila's point of view and using the intervals which she records, one reaches the same result. Hellanicus was twelve years older than Herodotus, and Herodotus was thirteen years older than Thucydides. Thucydides was forty in 432/1. Herodotus was forty thirteen years earlier in 445/4, and He!­ lanicus reached the age of forty twelve years before that, in 457/6. In dealing with the Apollodoran data reported by Pamphila one must therefore account for an akme of Hellanicus falling in 457/6 and an akme of Herodotus in 445/4. In each case the prevailing hypotheses assume an akme in the following year.5 Hellanicus Hellanicus was born in 496/5 B.C., according to Apollodorus. Die­ trich conjectured that Apollodorus had set his akme, as an historian of the Pentekontaetea, in the middle of that period. Jacoby can find no other "plausible erklariing des historisch ganz unhaltbaren ansatzes." The midpoint of the interval 480/79-432/1 is either 457/6 or 456/5, depending on the method of counting used. Jacoby notes that 456/5 is a "bedeutendes litterarhistorisches epochenjahr" and con­ cludes that the akme of Hellanicus was set in that year.6 The Apollo­ doran akme of Hellanicus, precisely computed, fell in the preceding year. The fact that the year marks the midpoint of the Pentekon­ taetea may be no more than coincidence. In accounting for the date we must take into consideration the more significant fact that Apollo­ dorus wrongly made Hellanicus older than Herodotus. Apollodorus apparently considered Hellanicus to have occupied a position in the development of historiography both logically and chronologically prior to that of Herodotus, the father of history. That is, Apollodorus deemed Hellanicus, as an author of «Peoples and Places," the successor in historiography of Hecataeus.7 5 In commenting on F 7, Jacoby takes note of the discrepancy in his computation of the akme of Hellanicus. Surprisingly, he fails to mention the same discrepancy in Herodotus' case. • R. Dietrich, Testimonia de Herodoti vita (Leipzig 1899) 6; Jacoby, Chronik 279, FGrHist 244 p 7. 7 For amplification of this point and its effect on the chronographic tradition see Jacoby on Hellanicus. FGrHist 4 and 323a. 8 THE APOLLODORAN AKMAI There was an important corollary to the akme-method, as Jacoby has shown. Apollodorus frequently set an interval of forty years, again reckoned inclusively, between the akmai of master and pupil or be­ tween the akmai of successive generations of practitioners in the same field. In other words, Apollodorus synchronized the younger man's birth with his predecessor's akme.8 Apollodorus considered Hellanicus the successor in historiography of Hecataeus. It is therefore possible that the Apollodoran birth date for Hellanicus in 496/5 derives from combination with the akme of Hecataeus. The Suda, which often preserves data of Apollodoran origin, associ­ ates Hellanicus with Hecataeus and dates the latter to a little before the Persian Wars: • E}..Ad.VtKOC • • . Ka, • EKa'TalCfJ 'TCjJ MtA7JclCfJ ~7T'lf1aA€. I "TT " .... , y€yovon Ka'Ta 'Ta .l.l€pCLKa KaL J-LLKpCfJ 7T'poc. rlyov€ is an ambiguous word. As Erwin Rohde has shown, it can refer either to a person's birth or to the height of his activity, i.e., his akme. Jacoby emends y€yovon to y€yovwc and understands the phrase to refer to Apollodorus' birth date for Hellanicus in 496. As Rohde points out, however, the text makes better sense as it stands. One can hardly be born "during the PersianWars and a little before," but such a phrase can easily refer to the height of his activity. r€yovon refers to Hecataeus' akme.9 Hecataeus could most easily be dated by reference to the Ionian Revolt. According to Herodotus (5.36 and 125), Hecataeus was active at the time and noted for his good advice unheeded. Apollodorus most probably dated his akme to some time during that six-year revolt. Herodotus mentions only one precisely datable event in connection with Hecataeus and the Ionian Revolt-Aristagoras' unsuccessful attempt to found a colony among the Edonians (5.124-26). According to Thucydides (4.102), the Athenian debacle at Drabescus took place in the 32nd year after Aristagoras' defeat by the Edonians and in the 29th year before Hagnon's successful foundation at Am­ phipolis. Amphipolis was founded in 437/6 (schol. Aeschines 2.31). Starting with the traditional date for the foundation of Amphipolis and reckoning the intervals of Thucydides inclusively, Apollodorus inferred a date of 465/4 for the Athenian defeat at Drabescus and 496/5 8 See especially Jacoby's comments on the pairs Thales Anaximenes (F 28, 66), Xenophanes Heraclitus (F 68, 340), Anaxagoras Democritus (F 31, 36). 9 E. Rohde, 'Tlyov£ in den Biographica des Suidas," Kleine Schriften I (Leipzig 1901) 114ff; Jacoby, FGrHist 4 T 1-6. ALDEN A. MOSSHAMMER 9 for the death of Aristagoras among the Edonians. Hecataeus had advised Aristagoras against undertaking the expedition (Herodotus 5.125). Apollodorus accordingly set Hecataeus' akme in the year of Aristagoras' defeat, 496/5.10 Hellanicus could not be dated directly, either by reference to auto­ biographical statements in his works or through testimonia (apart from such vague references as that of Thucydides 1.97.2) in other authors. Nevertheless, Apollodorus assigned him a place in historiog­ raphy intermediate between Hecataeus and Herodotus. He therefore adopted his usual method of combination in such cases and set Hellanicus' birth in the year of his predecessor's akme, 496/5. There remains the evidence of the Suda S.v.