Writing Ancient History: An Introduction to Classical Historiography (Library of Classical Studies)

289 Pages·2010·1.54 MB·English

by  Luke Pitcher

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writing ancient history
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LUKEPITCHERisLecturerinClassicsandAncientHistoryattheUniversity
of Durham. He has studied and written extensively on the subject of
historiographyinantiquity.
‘Thisisaverygoodbookindeed;generalreaders,students,andspecialistsalike
will read it with profit and delight.Luke Pitcher ranges over ancient historical
writers, both Greek and Roman, from Herodotus to Ammianus, with an
impressivegraspofhismaterial,andhehasagiftforfindingthetellingexample
and making subtle and insightful points with lucidity and punch.He also has a
wonderful eye for the modern parallel, and one is as likely to find here
illuminationdrawnfromaPatrickO’BriannoveloranepisodeofDoctorWhoas
from an extract from Xenophon or Velleius. We meet along the way the
diplomat’s wife who wrote a universal history while perched in a tree in an
embassygarden;andthemadCornishvicarwhodeceivedThomasMacaulaywith
ahistoricalballadandexcommunicatedhiscatformousingonaSunday.No-one
afterreadingthisbookshouldventuregeneralisationsabout“themodernway”or
“the ancient way” of writing history: Pitcher brings out how great are the
variationswithinboth,andyethowapparentlydistanthabitsofwritingmayturn
out to have parallels within modern culture that make them instantly more
intelligible.Pitcherisunusuallysensitivetothenarrativestrategiesoftheancient
historical writers,and also of all the health-warnings that the modern student
needs to bear in mind when reading their works:he makes his readers alert to
what he calls the “action of the swan”, that is all the work that goes into the
shapingofastorybutremainsbeneaththesurfaceofthenarrative.Fewwriters
aboutancienthistoriographyaresolearned,andevenfewercarrytheirlearning
solightly:thisisabookthatanyoneinterestedinancienthistoryjusthastoread
–andtheywillthoroughlyenjoyit.’
ChristopherPelling,RegiusProfessorofGreek,UniversityofOxford
‘Luke Pitcher has written an engaging, witty, and accessible study of the
complicated relationship betweentheory and practicein the ancienthistorians,
bringing to the task an impressive expertise in texts that range from archaic
Greece to late antiquity. He resists simple contrasts between ancient and
modern, presenting the reader instead with finely drawn, convincingly argued
analyses of the spectrum of practices employed by ancient historiographers in
their treatment of sources, self-presentation, and narrative modes of
(re)presentingtheirpasts.Bearinginmindalwaysthatthemodernstudentofthe
Greco-Roman world is also, in some way, “writing ancient history”, Pitcher
bringsusmuchclosertothemethodologiesandreceptionofthesetextsthrough
whichsomuchofourunderstandingoftheancientworldderives.’
ChristinaS.Kraus,ProfessorofClassics,YaleUniversity
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writing ancient
history
A I C H
N NTRODUCTION TO LASSICAL ISTORIOGRAPHY
Luke Pitcher
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Publishedin2009byI.B.Tauris&CoLtd
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Copyright©2009LukePitcher
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LibraryofClassicalStudies,Vol1
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Contents
Introduction:Ownage by Clio vii
1. Writing about History in the Ancient World 1
2. The Natures of History 25
3. Using Sources – Part I 47
4. Using Sources – Part II 71
5. Writing Ancient History 93
6. The Ends of History – Part I 113
7. The Ends of History – Part II 139
8. Texts and Translations:The Transmission of Ancient History 165
Conclusion 179
Notes 183
Suggestions for Further Reading 247
Bibliography 249
Index 271
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Introduction:
Ownage by Clio
Towards the end of Oliver Stone’s 2004 film Alexander, Alexander’s
general,Ptolemy,now king of Egypt,dictates his memories of the great
man to a scribe. Suddenly he stops short and instructs the secretary to
strikeoutwhathehasjustsaidassenileblather.Thescribe,cowedbythe
pharaonic majesty of Sir Anthony Hopkins,hastens to oblige.
An amusing moment, but one that has its implications. The real
Ptolemydidwriteahistory.Nowlost,itwasasourceforthelaterhisto-
rian Arrian, who made it one of the bases for his own writing about
the Macedonian conquest of Persia. This work survives. It is one of the
most important documents in modern-day attempts to understand the
historical Alexander.
WhatPtolemydoesnotwrite,Arrianwillnotread.WhatArriandoes
notreadinPtolemyisnotdoomedoutright–hehadothersourcesanda
mindofhisown–butitssurvivalinArrian’sownworkislesslikely.What
does not reach the modern world in Arrian’s history does not shape that
world’s perceptions of Alexander.In Hellenistic Alexandria,the mindset
ofan unimagined futurehangs upon one old man’s change of mind.
The impact of the past upon the present is a trite theme.It is under-
stood by every parent who warns a child not to eat something because
‘you don’t know where that’s been’. Stone’s Ptolemy dramatizes a truth
more easily forgotten. Today’s sense of where humanity has been was
determined,innosmallmeasure,bycountlessindividualactsofwriterly
decision (and,no doubt,of scribal intimidation as well).
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WritingAncientHistory
Ptolemy is the tip of a very big iceberg. As is the way with icebergs,
the troublesome element is invisible, or at the very least difficult to
detect.It is hard to tell how much of what we think we know about the
ancient world depends on the historical writings of the unregarded or
unremembered.Weareall,toaconsiderableextent,ownedbyClio,the
goddess whom the ancient world eventually saddled with responsibility
for writers of history.
Ancient historical works, then, are important. But they are not easy.
How,then,is it best to approach them? The modern world has seen two
main lines of attack.
The first of these has been focussed upon the relationship between
ancient historians and other relevant data about the classical world.
Other data may take the form of testimony from other historians, evi-
dence from inscriptions or other physical remains, or non-historical
writings. This first approach tends to focus upon the issue of reliability.
Its characteristic techniques include comparison between what a histo-
rian says (or does not say) with what other evidence attests about a
subject and the reconstruction of the sources which the historian had
available to him.
The second approach has been focussed upon works of history as lit-
erary productions. The emphasis here has been upon the structure of
works of history themselves, and how they generate meaning through
style,themanipulationofnarrativeandtheuseofsuchdevicesasallusion
and imagery.Its characteristic techniques are those associated with liter-
arycriticism.Throughclosereadingofthetext,itaimstodeterminethe
impact of a history as a work of art.
These two approaches have not always co-existed happily. The first
approachis,undercertaincircumstances,vulnerabletothecriticismthat
it can rest upon rather naive assumptions about the transmission of data.
Thesecond,onoccasion,standsaccusedofstrategicallyignoringthefact
thatworksofhistory,unlikemostworksofart,placethemselvesinavery
particular relation to what some of us still like to think of as reality.
Such mutual polemic obscures the ways in which each method,
thoughtfully applied,can enrich the other.The more sophisticated one’s
understanding of how a historian shapes a narrative, the better one is
equipped to judge his relationship to his data. Contrariwise, proper
analysis of histories as works of literature requires due attention to their
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Introduction:OwnagebyClio
relationship with the physical universe – the übertext, which not even
kings can copy-edit.
This doubled approach is at the heart of the book to come. In what
follows,Ishallbeexaminingancienthistory-writinginaction.Aboveall,
what I will be stressing is the importance of decision. Ancient works of
history,as Ptolemy shows,are built upon countless decisions.Every his-
tory that is written elbows out one that might have been. But decision,
likewise, is a responsibility which the reader cannot shirk. How you
assess what is written by the historians of antiquity impinges upon the
vision of the ancient world which is spawned in consequence.What you
see is what you beget.
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