Authority and Tradition in Ancient Historiography

by John M. Marincola

This book is a study of the various claims to authority made by the ancient Greek and Roman historians throughout their histories, and of the way in which the tradition of ancient historiography shaped their responses and molded the presentation of themselves to their audience. Guiding them in their claims to be authoritative was the tradition of the founders and best practitioners of history, Herodotus and Thucydides.

Genres: History

Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

About the author

John Marincola is the Leon Golden Professor of Classics at Florida State University. He is the author and editor of many books about Greek and Roman historiography and has translated a number of classical texts. He lives in Florida.

Reviews

[Marie-aimée · Rating 3 out of 5]

I waited a long time before read it. To bad. I could have already understood better ancient historiography! The first pages were awesome. I will certainly quote his very good definition of authority. The first part was a little long and boring but it really to be worth reading further. He made a good point on myth and history relationship (constrast done by the authors between myth, historia and plasma). The best idea of this book is that he presented cleary how and why ancient authors constructed their own characters. It influenced on sources, what they choose, how they used them, or refuted them but also they own authority by accessing to private or rare library or witnesses for example. The historian is a character to be constructed, so you easily understand importance of rhetoric. Someone has to re-written this book with all the new discoveries and analyses published recently. I could enjoyed better if it was also on geography authority, but they were sufficient points in common with history to guide my reading.