Editing Ephorus (section)

==Main works==
Ephorus' ''magnum opus'' was a set of 29 books recounting a [[Universal history (genre)|universal history]]. The whole work, edited by his son Demophilus—who added a 30th book—contained a summary description of the [[Sacred War (disambiguation)|Sacred Wars]], along with other narratives from the days of the [[Heracleidae|Heraclids]] up until the taking of [[Marmara Ereğlisi|Perinthus]] in 340 BC by [[Philip II of Macedon|Philip of Macedon]], covering a time span of more than seven hundred years.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}<ref>cf. [[Diodorus Siculus|Diod. Sic.]] xvi, 76</ref> According to [[Polybius]], Ephorus was the first historian to ever author a universal history.<ref>[[Polybius|Pol.]] v, 33.2</ref> For each of the 29 separate books, Ephorus wrote a [[Proem|''prooimion'']]. The work was probably simply named ''Historiai'', and followed a thematic, rather than a strictly chronological order in its narrative.  These writings are generally believed to be the main or sole source for [[Diodorus Siculus]]' account of the history of Greece between 480 and 340 BC, which is one of only two continuous narratives of this period that survive.<ref>Meister, ''Die griechische Geschichtsschreibung''. Kolhlhammer, 1990, p. 85.</ref><ref>The much briefer account in Books III-IX of [[Justin (historian)|Justin]]'s [[epitome]] of the histories of [[Gnaeus Pompeius Trogus]] is the other.</ref>

It is clear that Ephorus made critical use of the best authorities. His history was highly praised and read in antiquity, and later ancient historians freely drew upon his work. Large parts of the history of Diodorus Siculus may have originated in Ephorus's history. [[Strabo]] attached much importance to Ephorus's geographical investigations,<ref>Strabo viii</ref> and praised him for being the first to separate the historical from the simply geographical element. In his ''[[Geographica]]'', Strabo quoted Ephorus at length.<ref>Strabo</ref> [[Polybius]], while crediting him with a knowledge of the conditions of naval warfare, ridiculed his description of the 362 BCE [[Battle of Mantinea (362 BC)|Battle of Mantinea]] as showing ignorance of the nature of land operations.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}<ref>Pol. xii, 25</ref>