Lucian, VI: How to Write History. The Dipsads. Saturnalia. Herodotus or Aetion. Zeuxis or Antiochus. A Slip of the Tongue in Greeting. Apology for the "Salaried Posts in...

by Lucian of Samosata, K. Kilburn (Translator)

Lucian (ca. 120-190 CE), the satirist from Samosata on the Euphrates, started as an apprentice sculptor, turned to rhetoric and visited Italy and Gaul as a successful travelling lecturer, before settling in Athens and developing his original brand of satire. Late in life he fell on hard times and accepted an official post in Egypt.

Although notable for the Attic purity and elegance of his Greek and his literary versatility, Lucian is chiefly famed for the lively, cynical wit of the humorous dialogues in which he satirises human folly, superstition and hypocrisy. His aim was to amuse rather than to instruct. Among his best works are "A True Story" (the tallest of tall stories about a voyage to the moon), "Dialogues of the Gods" (a 'reductio ad absurdum' of traditional mythology), "Dialogues of the Dead" (on the vanity of human wishes), "Philosophies for Sale" (great philosophers of the past are auctioned off as slaves), "The Fisherman" (the degeneracy of modern philosophers), "The Carousal" or "Symposium" (philosophers misbehave at a party), "Timon" (the problems of being rich), "Twice Accused" (Lucian's defence of his literary career) and (if by Lucian) "The Ass" (the amusing adventures of a man who is turned into an ass).

The Loeb Classical Library edition of Lucian is in eight volumes.

512 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1959

About the author

Lucian of Samosata was a Greek-educated Syrian rhetorician, and satirist who wrote in the Greek language. He is noted for his witty and scoffing nature.

Reviews

[Filip · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lucian’s "How to Write History", though inevitably shaped by the conventions and limits of his time, remains strikingly relevant today. The first part is a characteristically witty exercise in irony — a playful critique of the contemporary overproduction of historical works by authors who, riding the wave of Roman victories and the successful conclusion of the Parthian War (161–166), rushed to publish all manner of books and pamphlets. Some did so to boast, others to flatter, and many simply because everyone else was writing. Yet their works, Lucian suggests, amounted to little more than clumsy imitations of classical models like Thucydides and Xenophon. The first part, then, is Lucian’s clever and lightly satirical sparring with his contemporaries.

The second part, however, is what we might justly call the earliest surviving reflection on the methodology of historical science. Here Lucian turns to more serious concerns: the futility of rhetorical showmanship, the deliberate obscuring of meaning through grandiose vocabulary meant only to display the writer’s erudition, the pursuit of present fame rather than focusing on writing works that could withstand the test of time. He mocks fabrication and invention, insists on objectivity, on viewing events from both sides, on the careful collection of sources, and on beginning to write only once a clear conception of the work has been formed - guidelines still relevant today.

[C. Çevik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Özellikle de kuşkucu felsefe ekolünün argümanlarının sunulduğu Hermotimus başlıklı metinden yararlandım. Bu konuda kaynak arayanlar için önemli bir metin, bunun dışında farklı konularda yazılmış metinler de içeriyor.