(Ἑκαταῖος).
1. Of Miletus, one of the earliest and most distinguished Greek historians (logographers) and geographers. He was the son of Hegesander, and belonged to a very ancient and illustrious family (Hdt. 2.143). According to Suidas, he was a contemporary of Dionysius of Miletus, and lived about the 65th olympiad, i. e. B. C. 520. Hence Larcher and others conclude that he was born about 550, so that in B. C. 500, the time at which he acted a prominent part among the Ionians, he would have been about fifty years old. As Hecataeus further (Suidas, s. v. Ἑλλάνικος) survived the Persian war for a short time, he seems to have died about B. C. 476, shortly after the battles of Plataeae and Mycale. Suidas tells us that Hecataeus was a pupil of Protagoras, which is utterly impossible for chronological reasons, just as it is impossible that Hecataeus should have been a friend of Xenocrates, as Strabo says (xii. p. 550.) Hecataeus must have been possessed of considerable wealth, for, like many other eminent men of that age, he satisfied his desire for knowledge by travelling into distant countries, and seeing with his own eyes that which others learnt from books. We know from Herodotus (l.c.) that Hecataeus visited Egypt, and from the manner in which later writers speak of his geographical knowledge, there can be no doubt that he visited many other countries also. (Agathem. 1.1; Agatharch. De Rubr. Mari, p. 48.) The fragments of his geographical work, which have come down to us, lead us to suppose that, besides the provinces of the Persian empire, he visited the coasts of the Euxine, Thrace, the whole of Greece, Oenotria, and even Liguria, Spain, and Libya, though of the last-mentioned countries he may have seen little more than the coasts. The time during which he was engaged in these travels cannot be accurately determined, though it must have been previous to the revolt of the lonians, that is, previous to B. C. 500, for after that event the war between the Greeks and Persians, as well as the advanced age of Hecataeus, would have thrown too many difficulties in his way; and it further appears that he was well acquainted with the extent and resources of the Persian empire at the time when his countrymen contemplated the revolt from Persia. (Hdt. 5.36.) His geographical work, moreover, must have been written after the year B. C. 524, since in one of the extant fragments 140,ed. Müller) lie speaks of Boryza in Thrace asa Persian town, which it did not become till that year.
The only events in the life of Hecataeus of which we have any definite knowledge, are the part he took in the insurrection of the Ionians against the Persians. When Aristagoras was planning the revolt of the Ionians, and all those whom he consulted agreed with him, Hecataeus was the only one who dissuaded his countrymen from such a rash undertaking, explaining to them the extent of the enemy's empire and his power. When this advice was disregarded, he exhorted them at least to provide themselves with a naval force, and for this purpose to make use of the treasures amassed in the temple at Branchidae. But this opinion also was overruled by the sanguine Ionians (Hdt. 5.36), and the Ionians revolted without being prepared to meet the enemy or to protect themselves. Subsequently, when Artaphernes and Otanes had invaded Ionia and Aeolis, and taken the towns of Clazomenae and Cuma, Aristagoras, who had brought about the misfortunes without the courage to endure them, meditated upon flight either to Sardinia or to Myrcinus. Hecataeus advised him to do neither, but to take up a fortified position in the neighboring island of Leros, and there to watch the issue of the events. (Hdt. 5.124, 125.) This advice was rejected again, but the conduct of H ecataeus had been throughout that of a wise and experienced man. Even after the fall of Ionia under the strokes of the Persians, he did not desert his countrymen ; for we are told that he was sent as ambassador to Artaphernes, and prevailed upon the satrap to win the confidence of the lonians by a mild treatment. (Diod. Fragm. Vat. p. 41, ed. Dindorf.) After this we hear no more of Hecataeus, but the little we know of him is enough to justify the high praise which some of the ancients bestow upon him in mentioning him along with the greatest men. (Eratosth. apud Strab. i. p. 7, xiv. p. 635; Aelian, Ael. VH 13.20; Hermog. De Gen. dicend. 2.12.)