Time when Herodotus wrote

The following passage appears to me to afford strong evidence, not only that Herodotus did not complete his history till an advanced age, but that he did not *begin* it. For in lib. i. 5. he writes: "τα δε επ' εμου ην μεγαλα, προτερον ην σμικρα," "those cities, which in my time *were* great, were of old small." This is certainly such an expression as none but a man advanced in years could have used. It is perhaps worth observing, that this passage occurring in the Introduction does not diminish its weight, as the events recorded in it, leading naturally into the history, could not well have be…