Hecataeus

Hecataeus of Miletus, an early Greek historian and geographer, usually styled 'the logographer,' flourished most probably about 500 B.C. He seems to have visited Greece, Thrace, the countries bordering on the Euxine, and many of the provinces of the Persian empire, with parts of Italy, Spain, and Africa, and the results of his observations were given in two great works—his Tour of the World, and his Histories or Genealogies; the latter, however, is little more than a prose version of the poetical legends of the Greeks. Only fragments now remain, which have been edited by Creuzer, Klausen, and Müller. At the revolt of the Ionians against Persia he dissuaded its ring-leader, Aristagoras, from an attempt so far above the means of his countrymen; and when that counsel was despised, urged the formation of a fleet, but in vain. Hecataeus afterwards went as ambassador to the Persian satrap Artaphernes, and induced him to treat the Ionians with leniency.