Hecataeus
（
Ἑκαταῖος).
1.
A Greek chronicler, born of a noble family at Miletus, about B.C. 550. In his youth he
travelled widely in Europe and Asia, as well as in Egypt. At the time of the Ionian revolt he
was in his native city, and gave his countrymen the wisest counsels, but in vain. After the
suppression of the rising, he succeeded by his tact and management in obtaining some
alleviation of the hard measures adopted by the Persians. He died about 476. The ancient
critics assigned him a high place among the Greek historians who preceded Herodotus, though
pronouncing him inferior to the latter. His two works, of which only fragments remain, were:
(
a) A description of the earth (
Περίοδος
Γῆς or
Περιήγησις), which was much consulted by
Herodotus, and was apparently used to correct the chart of Anaximander. It was in two parts,
one relating to Europe and the other to Asia, Egypt, and Libya. (
b) A
treatise on Greek fables, entitled
Γενεαλογίαι, or
Genealogies, and also
Ἱστορίαι, in four
books, on the poetical traditions of the Greeks. The fragments of Hecataeus have been edited
by Klausen
(Berlin, 1831) and C. and Th. Müller
(Paris,
1841). See
Schäffer, Hecataeus (1885); and the
article
Logographi.
2.
An Abderite, a contemporary of Alexander the Great. He was a philosopher, critic, and
grammarian, and probably was the author of a history of the Jews cited often by Iosephus.
