EPHORUS (c. B.c.), of Cyme in Aeolis, in Asia Minor, Greek historian. The tradition that, together with Theo pompus, he was the pupil of Isocrates, and turned to the study of history at the suggestion of his master, seems to be unhistor ical. His chief works were `Io ropiac in 29 books, the first uni versal history, beginning with the return of the Heracleidae to Peloponnesus. The work was edited by his son Demophilus, who added a 3oth book, containing a summary description of the Social War and ending with the taking of Perinthus (34o) by Philip of Macedon (cf. Diod. Sic. xvi. 14 with xvi. 76). Ephorus was the first historian to divide his work into books, to each of which he wrote a preface. He treated his material Kara (according to subject), and not according to years. Ephorus was used as a source by Diodorus, who makes chronological blunders in trying to reproduce him in annalistic form. Polybius (xii. 25 g), while crediting him with a knowledge of naval warfare condi tions, ridicules his description of the battles of Leuctra and Mantineia as showing ignorance of the nature of land operations. He usually (though not always) distinguished clearly between the mythical and historical (Strabo ix. p. 423) ; he even rec ognized that detail, though it corroborates accounts of recent events, is ground for suspicion in reports of far-distant history.
His style was artificial, and he frequently sacrificed truth to rhetoric effect. Other works attributed to him were :—A Treatise on Discoveries; Respecting Good and Evil Things; On Remark able Things in Various Countries (it is doubtful whether these were separate works, or merely extracts from the Histories) ; A Treatise on my Country, on the history and antiquities of Cyme, and an essay On Style. It has also been maintained (e.g., by Judeich, E. M. Walker) that he is the author of a historical fragment discovered at Oxyrhynchus. See E. M. Walker, Hellenica Oxyrhynchia Fragments in C. W. Muller, Fragmenta historicorum Graecorum, with critical introduction on the life and writings of Ephorus; see J. A. Klugmann, De Ephoro historico (186o) ; C. A. Volquardsen, Untersuchungen fiber die Quellen der griechischen and sicilischen Geschichten bei Diodor, xi. xvi. (1868) ; and specially J. B. Bury, Ancient Greek Historians (19o9) ; E. Schwartz, in Pauly-Wissowa, Realencyklopddie s.v.; and article GREECE: History : Ancient Authorities.