Moral History from Herodotus to Diodorus Siculus

Moral History from Herodotus to Diodorus Siculus PDF Author: Hau Lisa Hau
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 1474411088
Category : Electronic books
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Why did human beings first begin to write history? Lisa Irene Hau argues that a driving force among Greek historians was the desire to use the past to teach lessons about the present and for the future. She uncovers the moral messages of the ancient Greek writers of history and the techniques they used to bring them across. Hau also shows how moral didacticism was an integral part of the writing of history from its inception in the 5th century BC, how it developed over the next 500 years in parallel with the development of historiography as a genre and how the moral messages on display remained surprisingly stable across this period. For the ancient Greek historiographers, moral didacticism was a way of making sense of the past and making it relevant to the present; but this does not mean that they falsified events: truth and morality were compatible and synergistic ends.

Moral History from Herodotus to Diodorus Siculus

Moral History from Herodotus to Diodorus Siculus PDF Author: Hau Lisa Hau
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 1474411088
Category : Electronic books
Languages : en
Pages : 320

Get Book Here

Book Description
Why did human beings first begin to write history? Lisa Irene Hau argues that a driving force among Greek historians was the desire to use the past to teach lessons about the present and for the future. She uncovers the moral messages of the ancient Greek writers of history and the techniques they used to bring them across. Hau also shows how moral didacticism was an integral part of the writing of history from its inception in the 5th century BC, how it developed over the next 500 years in parallel with the development of historiography as a genre and how the moral messages on display remained surprisingly stable across this period. For the ancient Greek historiographers, moral didacticism was a way of making sense of the past and making it relevant to the present; but this does not mean that they falsified events: truth and morality were compatible and synergistic ends.

Moral History from Herodotus to Diodorus Siculus

Moral History from Herodotus to Diodorus Siculus PDF Author: Lisa Irene Hau
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781474427135
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Lisa Irene Hau argues that a driving force among Greek historians was the desire to use the past to teach lessons about the present and for the future. She uncovers the moral messages of the ancient Greek writers of history and the techniques they used to bring them across.

Diodorus Siculus, Books 11-12.37.1

Diodorus Siculus, Books 11-12.37.1 PDF Author:
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 0292779070
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
2007 — A Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Book Sicilian historian Diodorus Siculus (ca. 100-30 BCE) is our only surviving source for a continuous narrative of Greek history from Xerxes' invasion to the Wars of the Successors following the death of Alexander the Great. Yet this important historian has been consistently denigrated as a mere copyist who slavishly reproduced the works of earlier historians without understanding what he was writing. By contrast, in this iconoclastic work Peter Green builds a convincing case for Diodorus' merits as a historian. Through a fresh English translation of a key portion of his multi-volume history (the so-called Bibliotheke, or "Library") and a commentary and notes that refute earlier assessments of Diodorus, Green offers a fairer, better balanced estimate of this much-maligned historian. The portion of Diodorus' history translated here covers the period 480-431 BCE, from the Persian invasion of Greece to the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War. This half-century, known as the Pentekontaetia, was the Golden Age of Periclean Athens, a time of unprecedented achievement in drama, architecture, philosophy, historiography, and the visual arts. Green's accompanying notes and commentary revisit longstanding debates about historical inconsistencies in Diodorus' work and offer thought-provoking new interpretations and conclusions. In his masterful introductory essay, Green demolishes the traditional view of Diodorus and argues for a thorough critical reappraisal of this synthesizing historian, who attempted nothing less than a "universal history" that begins with the gods of mythology and continues down to the eve of Julius Caesar's Gallic campaigns.

On Writing History from Herodotus to Herodian

On Writing History from Herodotus to Herodian PDF Author:
Publisher: Penguin UK
ISBN: 0141393580
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 806

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Book Description
What is history and how should it be written? This important new anthology, translated and edited by Professor John Marincola, contains all the seminal texts that relate to the writing of history in the ancient world. The study of history was invented in the classical world. Treading uncharted waters, writers such as Plutarch and Lucian grappled with big questions such as how history should be written, how it differs from poetry and oratory, and what its purpose really is. This book includes complete essays by Dionysius, Plutarch and Lucian, as well as shorter pieces by Pliny the Younger, Cicero and others, and will be an essential resource for anyone studying history and the ancient world.

Truth and History in the Ancient World

Truth and History in the Ancient World PDF Author: Lisa Hau
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1317558057
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 299

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Book Description
This collection of essays investigates histories in the ancient world and the extent to which the producers and consumers of those histories believed them to be true. Ancient Greek historiographers repeatedly stressed the importance of truth to history; yet they also purported to believe in myth, distorted facts for nationalistic or moralizing purposes, and omitted events that modern audiences might consider crucial to a truthful account of the past. Truth and History in the Ancient World explores a pluralistic concept of truth – one in which different versions of the same historical event can all be true – or different kinds of truths and modes of belief are contingent on culture. Beginning with comparisons between historiography and aspects of belief in Greek tragedy, chapters include discussions of historiography through the works of Herodotus, Xenophon, and Ktesias, as well as Hellenistic and later historiography, material culture in Vitruvius, and Lucian’s satire. Rather than investigate whether historiography incorporates elements of poetic, rhetorical, or narrative techniques to shape historical accounts, or whether cultural memory is flexible or manipulated, this volume examines pluralities of truth and belief within the ancient world – and consequences for our understanding of culture, ancient or otherwise.

Digressions in Classical Historiography

Digressions in Classical Historiography PDF Author: Mario Baumann
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3111320901
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 364

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Book Description
Although digressive discourse constitutes a key feature of Greco-Roman historiography, we possess no collective volume on the matter. The chapters of this book fill this gap by offering an overall view of the use of digressions in Greco-Roman historical prose from its beginning in the 5th century BCE up to the Imperial Era. Ancient historiographers traditionally took as digressions the cases in which they interrupted their focused chronological narration. Such cases include lengthy geographical descriptions, prolepses or analepses, and authorial comments. Ancient historiographers rarely deign to interrupt their narration's main storyline with excursuses which are flagrantly disconnected from it. Instead, they often "coat" their digressions with distinctive patterns of their own thinking, thus rendering them ideological and thematic milestones within an entire work. Furthermore, digressions may constitute pivotal points in the very structure of ancient historical narratives, while ancient historians also use excursuses to establish a dialogue with their readers and to activate them in various ways. All these aspects of digressions in Greco-Roman historiography are studied in detail in the chapters of this volume.

Emotion and Historiography in Polybius’ Histories

Emotion and Historiography in Polybius’ Histories PDF Author: Regina M. M. Loehr
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 1003835112
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 243

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Book Description
This volume explores emotion and its importance in Polybius’ conception of history, his writing of historiography, and the benefits of this understanding to readers of history. How and why did ancient historians include emotions in their texts? This book argues that in the Histories of Polybius – the Greek historian who recorded Rome’s rise to dominion in the ancient Mediterranean – emotions play an effective role in history, used by the historian to explain the causes of actions, connect events, and make sense of human behavior. Through analysis of the emotions in the narrative and theory of Polybius’ Histories using critical terminology and frameworks from modern philosophy, psychology, and political science, this work calls into question assumptions that emotions were purely irrational and detrimental in ancient history, politics, and historiography. Emotions often positively shape Polybius’ historical narrative, provide criteria for the success and morality of agents, actions, and even historians, and aid the historian in guiding readers to become intelligent leaders and citizens of a new world centered on Rome. Emotion and Historiography in Polybius’ Histories is a fascinating read for students and scholars of ancient historiography and history, as well as those working on ancient political thought, emotions in the ancient Greek world, and emotion in history and literature more broadly.

Xenophon on Violence

Xenophon on Violence PDF Author: Aggelos Kapellos
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110671468
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 210

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Book Description
This volume examines the issue of violence in Xenophon’s works, who lived in circumstances of war for many years. All the papers address issues of violence from different aspects. The exclusive focus on this issue is justified, since no previous detailed study exists on the subject. Most of the chapters focus on the Hellenica, because this work records more aspects of violence than the rest of his works. The volume is more concerned with examining violence in practice rather than the theory of violence, and violent practices are more frequently recorded in the Hellenica, which is the main historical work of Xenophon.This volume attempts to provide a comprehensive study of the subject of violence in Xenophon’s works and to demonstrate the coherence and consistency of his thought on it. This work aspires to be a contribution to classical scholarship since it attempts to: (1) shed further light on the literary character of Xenophon’s oeuvre; (2) offer new interpretation of passages and themes; and (3) put emphasis on passages that scholars have not pointed out and which offer important insights to the thought of Xenophon.

Rhetorical Adaptation in the Greek Historians, Josephus, and Acts vol.I

Rhetorical Adaptation in the Greek Historians, Josephus, and Acts vol.I PDF Author: John M. Duncan
Publisher: BRILL
ISBN: 9004524037
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 744

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Book Description
A detailed comparative analysis of speaker-audience interactions in Greek historiography, Josephus, and Acts that examines historians’ use of speeches as a means of instructing/persuading their readers and highlights Luke’s distinctive depiction of the apostles as adaptable yet frequently alienating orators.

Utopias in Ancient Thought

Utopias in Ancient Thought PDF Author: Pierre Destrée
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110733412
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Book Description
This collection deals with utopias in the Greek and Roman worlds. Plato is the first and foremost name that comes to mind and, accordingly, 3 chapters (J. Annas; D. El Murr; A. Hazistavrou) are devoted to his various approaches to utopia in the Republic, Timaeus and Laws. But this volume's central vocation and originality comes from our taking on that theme in many other philosophical authors and literary genres. The philosophers include Aristotle (Ch. Horn) but also Cynics (S. Husson), Stoics (G. Reydams-Schils) and Cicero (S. McConnell). Other literary genres include comedic works from Aristophanes up to Lucian (G. Sissa; S. Kidd; N.I. Kuin) and history from Herodotus up to Diodorus Siculus (T. Lockwood; C. Atack; I. Sulimani). A last comparative chapter is devoted to utopias in Ancient China (D. Engels).