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The Greek and Roman Historians
What did 'history' mean to the Greeks and the Romans? This volume traces the development of conceptions of history and its practice from Homer to the writers of the Roman Empire. It serves as an introduction to the great historians of the ancient world and contains sections on Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybius, Livy, Tacitus, Suetonius and others. Each section is designed to be self-contained and may be read on its own; but links between the different historians, the ways in which they competed with and were influenced by one another, are constantly brought out. The main ancient historians are household names but Duff stresses not only the ways in which they seem familiar but also those in which they are alien to today's readers; for the ancient historian was always concerned with improving the reader as much as informing him. As well as the most familiar names, Duff also includes in his account others whose work survives only in fragments, especially Greeks of the fourth century BC and the Hellenistic era, whose entire works were known to their Roman successors.
136 pages, Paperback
First published July 14, 2003
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 26, 2022
Excellent book, highly recommend
July 25, 2017
3.5 stars.
This is a tiny book, yet somehow I found it quite a slog. However, this may be a blessing in disguise: I went through it very slowly and carefully with a highlighter and pencil for notes, essentially trying to memorise the whole thing, and absorbed a lot of information from a very dense short textbook (the books in this series tend to be in that style).
Although the information overall was useful, I did find a few parts flawed: the chapter on the fourth century historians has a lot of digressions (into Diodorus and other historians) and so jumps around chronologically more than I think it needed to, when discussions about later historians could have waited for their own chapters to compare with those aforementioned. The subject of historians is obviously a bit messy and difficult to organise (since so much of the discussion relates to how later histories are ‘informed’ or influenced by earlier ones), and the author makes a valiant effort but there’s more switching back and forth than necessary. I also found the Livy chapter repetitive and a little basic, and perhaps could have been shortened down since it’s only coverage dedicated to a single author. Diodorus and later comprehensive authors of ‘universal’ history could have been left to their own sections (and then refer back to earlier periods so they can illuminate ‘lost’ or fragmentary periods of documentation where contemporary records don’t survive).
On the positive end, I appreciated that the author helps you understand why some of the more obscure historians who do survive are not studied or discussed as much as others! It gives a decently comprehensive view of surviving history writers that can simplify the period for beginners or fill in the gaps for those who have studied several of the historians already. Since so much of what survives is dictated by what is recorded by later copiers, I would have liked a little more information about how the manuscripts come down to us, and how individual historians have gone in and out of fashion over the centuries and why (the author mentions that Plutarch used to be the definitive classical text before the 19th century, but there isn’t any information about the Mediaeval Christian reception of authors that plays such a big role in the survival of ancient texts). I think a little more of a latter day ‘reception study’ would have been interesting.
However, the text overall is still pretty encompassing of the subject, useful enough for classicists and ‘outsiders’ alike, and the author gives an interesting concluding point reminding us of the relationship (and rift) between history-writing and ‘truth’. Overall I consider this well worth reading as a neat-enough overview of an often bitty and divisive subject.
This is a tiny book, yet somehow I found it quite a slog. However, this may be a blessing in disguise: I went through it very slowly and carefully with a highlighter and pencil for notes, essentially trying to memorise the whole thing, and absorbed a lot of information from a very dense short textbook (the books in this series tend to be in that style).
Although the information overall was useful, I did find a few parts flawed: the chapter on the fourth century historians has a lot of digressions (into Diodorus and other historians) and so jumps around chronologically more than I think it needed to, when discussions about later historians could have waited for their own chapters to compare with those aforementioned. The subject of historians is obviously a bit messy and difficult to organise (since so much of the discussion relates to how later histories are ‘informed’ or influenced by earlier ones), and the author makes a valiant effort but there’s more switching back and forth than necessary. I also found the Livy chapter repetitive and a little basic, and perhaps could have been shortened down since it’s only coverage dedicated to a single author. Diodorus and later comprehensive authors of ‘universal’ history could have been left to their own sections (and then refer back to earlier periods so they can illuminate ‘lost’ or fragmentary periods of documentation where contemporary records don’t survive).
On the positive end, I appreciated that the author helps you understand why some of the more obscure historians who do survive are not studied or discussed as much as others! It gives a decently comprehensive view of surviving history writers that can simplify the period for beginners or fill in the gaps for those who have studied several of the historians already. Since so much of what survives is dictated by what is recorded by later copiers, I would have liked a little more information about how the manuscripts come down to us, and how individual historians have gone in and out of fashion over the centuries and why (the author mentions that Plutarch used to be the definitive classical text before the 19th century, but there isn’t any information about the Mediaeval Christian reception of authors that plays such a big role in the survival of ancient texts). I think a little more of a latter day ‘reception study’ would have been interesting.
However, the text overall is still pretty encompassing of the subject, useful enough for classicists and ‘outsiders’ alike, and the author gives an interesting concluding point reminding us of the relationship (and rift) between history-writing and ‘truth’. Overall I consider this well worth reading as a neat-enough overview of an often bitty and divisive subject.
February 28, 2015
This is an excellent, brief introduction to the great Roman and Greek historians of the Hellenistic era. Duff summarizes the work and contribution of the greatest of the ancient historians, from Herodotus and Thucydides to Plutarch, and provides insightful analysis of their aims, accuracy as historians, and what sets them apart from other great writers of their age. A solid introduction for anyone interested in historical literary classics.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews