Essays in Ancient and Modern Historiography

396 Pages·1977·13.972 MB·English

by  Arnaldo Momigliano

Arnaldo Momigliano
Essays in Ancient
and Modern Historiography
Wesleyan University Press
.Middletown, Connecticut
Copyright © Arnaldo Momigliano, 1947, 1955, 1957,
1958, 1959, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1975
m
Published Great· Britain·by Basil Blackwell Oxford, 1977
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 76-41484
ISBN:0-8195--5010-8
Printed in Great Britain
First American edition, 1977
ALLA MEMORIA
DEI
MIEI MAESTRI
NELL'UNIVERSITA DI TORINO
192.5-9

Contents
Foreword ix
List of Abbreviations x
I A Piedmontese View of the History of Ideas I
2 The Fault of the Greeks 9
3 Eastern Elements in Post-Exilic Jewish, and Greek,
Historiography 25
4 Athens in the Third Century B. c. and the Discovery of Rome
in the Histories ofTimaeus ofTauromenium 37
S The Historian"s Skin 67
6 Polybius" Reappearance in Western Europe 79
7 Did Fabius Pictor Lie? 99
8 Pagan and Christian Historiography in the Fourth
Century A.D. Ia"f
9 The Lonely Historian Ammianus Marcellinus 127
10 Popular Religious Beliefs and the Late Roman Historians 141
n Tradition and the Classical Historian I6I
12 Time in Ancient Historiography 179
13 The First Political Commentary on Tacitus 205
14 Perizonius, Niebuhr and the Character of Early Roman
Tradition 231
IS Vico's Scienza Nuuoa: Roman 'Bestioni' and Roman 'Eroi" 253
16 Mabillon's Italian Disciples 277
17 Introduction to the Grieckische Kulturgeschichte by
JacobBurckhardt 295
18 J. G. Droysen between Greeks and Jews 3a"/
19 The Ancient City of Fustel de Coulanges 325
20 Reconsidering B. Croce (1866-1952) 345
:ZI Historicism Revisited 365
Index 375

Foreword
The present volume is a new selection from the essays (partly in Italian,
partly in English) collected in Contributo alia storia degli studi classici
(e del mondo antico), of which five instalments in seven volumes have so
far appeared (I, 1955; 11, 196<>; Ill, 1':"'"2, 1966; IV, 1969; V, 1-2, 1975)
and a sixth is being prepared for publication (Edizioni di Storia e
Letteratura, Rome). A previous, entirely different, selection was pub
lished under the title Studies in Historiography by Weidenfeld & Nicol
son in 19()6. The present selection replaces the one which was due to be
published by Penguin Books in 1974· Four of the essays here included
(3, 4, 17, 19) were originally written and published in Italian; they were
translated for this collection by Mrs Judith Landry. The translations
were revised by Dr T. J, Comell who also helped me in other ways.
Each essay must be read with its original date of publication in mind.
As a rule, no attempt is made to bring bibliography up to date.
I owe much gratitude to Blackwell for having undertaken the publica
tion of this volume in difficult circumstances, and to my friend Dr 0.
Murray for having suggested and watched over it. I hope that the first
and the last essays speak with sufficient clarity about my presuppositions
and interests.
All Souls College
Oxford, June 1976
List of Abbreviations
A}Ph American Journal of Philology
An. Bol. Analecta Bollandiana
BiblH & R Bihh"otheque d' Humanisme et Renaissance
CAH The Cambridge Ancient History
CQ Classical Quarterly
CR Classical Review
CRAcad. Inscr. Comptes rendus de I'A cadbnie des Inscriptions et
Belles-uttres
CSHByz Corpus scriptorum historiae Byzantinae
DOP Dumbarton Oaks Papers
GCFI Giornale critico della filosofia italiana
GCS Die griechischen christlichen Schrifmeller der ersten
Jahrhunderte
Giorn. St. Lett. It. Giornale storico del/a letteratura italiana
GRBS Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies
H&T History and Theory
JHI Journal of the History of Ideas
JHS Joumal of Hellenic Studies
JRS Journal of Roman Studies
JWCI Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes
ODCC OxfMd Dictionary of the Christian Church
PG J, P. Migne, Patrologiae Cursus, seri& Graeca
PL J. P. Migne, Patrologiae Cursus, series Latina
PWorRE Pauly-Wissowa, Real-Encydopiidie der dassischen
Altertumswissenschaft
RAL Rendiconti della dasse di scienze morali, storiche e
filologiche dell' Accademia dei Lincei
RPh Reoue de Philolog£e
RSI Riflista Storica Italiana
TAPhA Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philo
logical Association
I
A Piedmontese View of the
History of Ideas*
WHEN I arrived in Oxford in 1939, it was enough to mention the word
'idea' to be given the address of the Warburg Institute. R. G. Coiling
wood, who still lectured on the history of the idea of history, was ill,
isolated and discredited, and soon disappeared. Who had persuaded the
English that the history of ideas was an unBritish activity? I suspect it
was Lewis Namier. In the 19208, when I was a student in the University
of Turin, the history of ideas was the speciality for which English his
torians were most famous. This reputation went back to the days of
Grote and Lecky, Freeman, Bryce and Flint. There were few books in
other languages which could compete with Leslie Stephen's History of
English Thought in the r8th Century or with J. B. Bury's A History of
Freedom of Thought and The I~ of Progress. Lord Acton managed to
become famous for a book on liberty he did not write. For medieval
political ideas one went ofc ourse to the work in progress by the brothers
Carlyle, and we were told (perhaps not quite fairly) that no Italian study
of a medieval jurist could compare with C. N. S. Woolf's Bartolus of
Sassofemito (1913). The most significant history of an idea published in
Italy in the 192os, G. de Ruggiero's Storia del Liberalismo Europeo, was
in method and point of view a derivation from English models. De Rug
giero was a close friend of Collingwood who translated his book into
English. In the specific field of history of philosophy there was little to
match Bosanquet's History of Aesthetic (as Croce reluctantly admitted)
or Bumet's much-admired Early Greek Philosoplry.
The situation was clearly one of change. To remain in the provincial
but very alert society of the University ofTurin, a distinction was be
coming apparent between the Law Faculty and the Faculty of Arts.
*This essay was published in the Times Literary Supplement, 24 November
1972 with the title 'National Versions of an International Phenomenon'.
I