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In Theopompus the Historian, Gordon Shrimpton critically examines the direct evidence concerning the life and lost works of Theopompus of Chios, the fourth-century BC historian and orator, providing the first comprehensive study of the man and his work. In a translation of the fragments (the surviving citations of Theopompus' work) and of the testimonies (the references made to Theopompus' work by other writers), he makes available all that remains of Theopompus' writings.
Theopompus of Chios was one of the most important ancient Greek historians of the fourth century BC. Although his work has survived only in fragments, it is still a rich and vital source of information for Greek political, social, and intellectual history during the age of Philip of Macedon. This book explores both Theopompus's historical method and the intellectual milieu in which he worked, while placing the fragments themselves in "context" by examining where and why they are cited by later authors. Flower's illuminating and original study leads up to some important new conclusions about historical writing in the fourth century BC--that there was no so-called Isocratean school of rhetorical history; that Theopompus used moral explanations typical of Greek thought to account for historical changes; and that oral tradition, as opposed to rhetorical invention, was still vibrant in the fourth century. All Greek in the book is translated.
Because of the didactic nature of the historical genre, many scholars ancient and modern have seen connections between history and rhetoric. So far, discussion has centered on fifth-century authors -- Herodotus and Thucydides, along with the sophists and early philosophers. Pownall extends the focus of this discussion into an important period. By focusing on key intellectuals and historians of the fourth century (Plato and the major historians -- Xenophon, Ephorus, and Theopompus), she examines how these prose writers created an aristocratic version of the past as an alternative to the democratic version of the oratorical tradition. Frances Pownall is Professor of History and Classics, University of Alberta.
Theopompus was primarily known in antiquity for his historical works, which included an Epitome of Herodotus; Hellenica, a twelve-volume history of Greece; and the fifty-eight volume Philippica, which focused mainly on the career of Philip II of Macedon. All of Theopompus' works were lost by late antiquity except fifty-three volumes of the Philippica, which survived into Byzantine times only to disappear by perhaps the tenth century. Before these works were lost, geographers, lexicographers, biographers, collectors of anecdotes, and later historians all quoted Theopompus in their writings and many critics of historical style commented on Theopompus' work. Concentrating on the Hellenica and the Philippica, Shrimpton studies the fragments and testimonies to reveal what can be gleaned about the scope and content of Theopompus' two major works. He deals systematically with the problems of interpretation and makes clear the methodological background of his reconstructions and evaluations, furnishing the basis for further methodological debate. Theopompus' moral and political views are discussed, as are his treatment of two of the most important figures of the middle of the fourth century BC, Philip and Demosthenes. In addition, Shrimpton provides a comprehensive index of the proper names found in the fragments and reassesses the authorship of the Hellenica Oxyrhynchia, suggesting that it is most plausibly identified with Cratippus.
Our knowledge of Greek history rests largely on literary texts - not merely historians (especially Herodotus, Thucylides and Xenephon), but also tragedies, comedies, speeches, biographies and philosophical works. These texts are themselves among the most skilled and highly wrought productions of a brilliant rhetorical culture. How is the historian to use them? This book addresses this problem by taking a series of extended test-cases, and discussing how we should and should not try to exploit the texts. In some instances we can investigate 'what really happened', and the ways in which the texts manipulate, remould, or colour it according to their own rhetorical strategies; in others the most illuminating aspect may be those strategies themselves, and what they tell us about the culture - how it figured questions of sex and gender, politics, citizenship and the city, the law and the courts and how wars happen. Literary Texts and the Greek Historian concentrates on Athens in the second half of the fifth-century, when many of the principal genres came together, but includes some examples from earlier (Aeschylus ^Oresteia) and later (including Aristotles poetics). Literary Texts and the Greek Historian examines the range of responses to these texts and suggests new ways in which literary criticism can illuminate the society from which these texts sprang.
Introduces Xenophon's writings and their importance for Western culture, while explaining the main scholarly controversies.
This survey of more recent work on Herodotus, Thucydides and Polybius synthesises some of the most important research from the last few decades.
Recent scholars have analysed ways in which authors of the Roman era appropriated the figure of Alexander the Great. The essays in this collection cast a wider net, to show how Classical Greek, Hellenistic and Roman authors reinterpret and sometimes misinterpret information on ancient Macedonians to serve their own literary and political aims. Although Roman ideas pervade the historiographical tradition, this volume shows that the manipulation of ancient Macedonian history largely occurred much earlier. It reflected the complicated dynastic politics of the Argead royal house, the efforts of Alexander himself to redefine Macedonian kingship, and the competing strategies of the Successors to claim his legacy. Facing the complexity of the source tradition about the ancient Macedonians yields a richer and more balanced reflection of both the history and the historiography of this important and controversial people.
This is an expanded version of a lecture given in the Departments of History and Classics at Harvard in 1998. Starting from a methodological point of view, this book show the evolution of the idea of world history through the works of Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Ctesias, Ephorus, Polybius and others up to the historians of the Augustan epoch.
The Greeks invented history as a literary genre in the fifth century BC. This book follows the development of history from Herodotus, via Thucydides, Xenophon and Polybius, until the Hellenistic age.