Histos (Journal)
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Le Storie Romane di Cassio Dione (on C. Burden-Strevens and M. O. Lindholmer, edd., Cassius Dio’s Forgotten History of Early Rome: The Roman History, Books 1–21; J. Osgood and C. Baron, edd., Cassius Dio and the Late Roman Republic; J. M. Madsen, Cassius
No full textTecniche di Rappresentazione in Arriano (on H. Schunk, Arrians Indiké: Eine Untersuchung der Darstellungstechnik)
No full textCh. 1. Homer and the Question Why
No full textHistoriography’s debt to Homer is immense, especially in exploring matters of cause and effect. The epics trace things back to beginnings, even if those are only ‘hinges’ in a still longer story; they use speech-exchanges not merely to characterise individuals but also to explore features of their society; the interaction of human and divine is complex, but the narrative focus characteristically rests more on the human level; allusiveness to narratives of earlier and later events also carries explanatory value. Epic and historiography alike also cast light on why readers find such aesthetic pleasure in stories of suffering, brutality, and death.
Published in C. Constantakopoulou and M. Fragoulaki, ed., Shaping Memory in Ancient Greece (HISTOS Supplement 11), p. 1-35
The Implications of ‘Poliorcetes’: Was Demetrius the Besieger’s Nickname Ironic?
Get PDFAccording to Diodorus, Demetrius, the son of Antigonus Monophthalmus, earned his famous sobriquet, ‘Poliorcetes’ during his spectacular siege of Rhodes in 305–304 BC. The ancient implications of this unique epithet are unremarkable, but modern scholarship has often taken the allocation of the surname, in retrospect, to be ironic. The thinking goes that, in the context of Rhodes, Demetrius was certainly the besieger, but he was not the taker of that city. This notion probably originates with Plutarch, whose Life of Demetrius is built around the trope that his famous subject aspired to much, but accomplished little. However, a systematic scrutiny of Demetrius’ lifelong siege enterprises demonstrates that his nickname was, in fact, well-deserved. This paper suggests that the image of Demetrius as a ‘Besieger’ but not a ‘Taker’ of cities is more a construct facilitated by Plutarch and peddled by superficial modern analyses, than a reality
The Explosion of Dionysius of Halicarnassus: Ghosts of Rhetoric from the Artes Historicae to Postmodernist Historiography (on R. L. Hunter and C. C. de Jonge, edd., Dionysius of Halicarnassus and Augustan Rome: Rhetoric, Criticism and Historiography; and Friedrich Meins, Paradigmatische Geschichte: Wahrheit, Theorie und Methode in den Antiquitates Romanae des Dionysios von Halikarnassos)
No full textCh. 4. History, Ethnography, and Aetiology in Herodotus’ Libyan Logos (4.145–205)
No full textThis chapter examines how Herodotus’ narratives of Cyrene’s foundation and of Persia’s more recent imperial interest in Libya hark back to the proem and combine with the Libyan ethnography to produce an account that is essential to the Histories’ overall design and to shaping one area of Greek cultural memory. These narratives probe cause and responsibility in relation to the war between Greeks and barbaroi, carrying further the Histories’ dialogic program by exposing the distinctly Greek identities and assumptions readers bring to bear in explaining the past. Beyond preserving wondrous material, the Libyan logos illustrates how ethnographical awareness complicates and enriches historical interpretation.
Published in C. Constantakopoulou and M. Fragoulaki, ed., Shaping Memory in Ancient Greece (HISTOS Supplement 11), p. 155-88
Ethnography and the Roman Digressions of Ammianus Marcellinus
Get PDFThis article examines the content of Ammianus Marcellinus’ Roman digressions, the form and intent of which have been a consistent subject of debate for scholars, from the perspective of ethnographic writing. It highlights Ammianus’ comparison of the Romans of his day with those of the idealised past, as well as his unusual portrayal of the inhabitants of Rome as similar to the barbarian peoples described elsewhere in the Res Gestae. These aspects of Ammianus’ portrayal of the Romans, it is argued, exemplify the changing nature of Roman identity in Late Antiquity and suggest that at least part of the reason Ammianus wrote the digressions was to articulate an idealised conception of Romanness
Putting Megasthenes in his Place (on J. Wiesehöfer, H. Brinkhaus, and R. Bichler, edd., Megasthenes und seine Zeit / Megasthenes and his Time)
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