3. Rethinking Isocrates and Historiography [1] John Marincola 1. It is a truism often expressed when studying classical historiography that we are hampered by an absence of theoretical writings on the subject. Although we know the names of several works written “On History” in antiquity, [2] only three essays have come down to us with… Read more
4. At the Boundary of Historiography: Xenophon and his Corpus Roberto Nicolai 1. Historians and Sophists The terms sophist and sophistic are commonly applied to a diverse group of people, united by a broad range of interests, areas of expertise, and a preference for disseminating their works by way of public recitations (ἀκροάσεις). [1] If to an Athenian of the… Read more
5. The Use of Documents in Xenophon’s Hellenica Cinzia Bearzot The conference ‘L’uso dei documenti nella storiografia antica’ (Gubbio 22–24 maggio 2001), which presented findings of research conducted under the direction of Paolo Desideri, and the proceedings of which were published in 2003, highlighted the fact that ancient historians, although well aware of the rhetorical nature of historical writing, actually privileged the role of documentary sources. Read more
6. The Causes of the Peloponnesian War: Ephorus, Thucydides and Their Critics Giovanni Parmeggiani The causes of the Peloponnesian War constitute such a persistent theme in discussions of fifth-century Greek history, in part because of the complexity of the aetiological view of our earliest source, Thucydides. ἤρξαντο δὲ αὐτοῦ Ἀθηναῖοι καὶ Πελοποννήσιοι λύσαντες τὰς τριακοντούτεις σπονδὰς αἳ αὐτοῖς ἐγένοντο μετὰ Εὐβοίας ἅλωσιν. διότι δ’ ἔλυσαν,… Read more
7. Ephorus in Context: The Return of the Heraclidae and Fourth-century Peloponnesian Politics [1] Nino Luraghi In a famous passage at the beginning of Book 4, Diodorus discusses the difficulties facing the historian who wants to include in his work what Diodorus himself calls “the ancient mythologiai,” i.e. the deeds of demigods, heroes, and great men of the most distant past. Read more
8. Ephorus, Polybius, and τὰ καθόλου γράφειν: Why and How to Read Ephorus and his Role in Greek Historiography without Reference to ‘Universal History’ [1] John Tully I would be making the understatement of the century if I were to say that universal history has never been a clear notion. Momigliano 1982:533 Ephorus, an… Read more
9. Greek Monographs on the Persian World: The Fourth Century BCE and its innovations Dominique Lenfant While it is the best-known Greek monograph on the Persian world, Ctesias’ Persica is often cited today as an illustration of the supposed decadence of the historical genre in the fourth century BCE. One symptom of this ‘decay’ is Ctesias’ choice of subject matter: rather than a politico-military history focused on… Read more
10. The Sick Man of Asia? Christopher Tuplin If you will take, I don’t say unlimited time or many generations, but only these last fifty years immediately preceding our generation, you will be able to understand the cruelty of Fortune. For can you suppose, if some god had warned the Persians or their king, or the Macedonians or their king, that in fifty years… Read more
11. Local History, Polis History, and the Politics of Place Rosalind Thomas The Greek polis was, as we all know, the central and abiding socio-political institution of the Greek world, continuing in the Hellenistic period and even into Roman times, but with vastly reduced political power. Yet it was inherently changeable in ways which make the identification of what constituted ‘the polis’ extraordinarily elusive; even identifying… Read more
5. Digressing toward a Possible Regime Although the basic trajectory of the Republic could certainly be understood in other ways, one can see the conversation rising from the Piraeus (in the wake of a spectacular event), moving through ideal political regimes and ascending to a high point of theoretical discussion in the middle, and then returning back down through degenerate regimes toward a vision of the afterlife. Read more
