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How to Write History

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

How to Write History (Ancient Greek: Πῶς δεῖ ἱστορίαν συγγράφειν) is the title of a study by the classical Syrian[1] writer Lucian, which may be considered the only work on the theory of history-writing to survive from antiquity.[2]

Themes

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The first part of Lucian’s essay involved a critical attack on contemporary historians. Lucian maintained that they confused history with panegyric, overloaded it with irrelevant details, and weighed it down with overblown rhetoric.[3]

Lucian recommended instead the virtues of clear narration, and the valorisation of truth.[4] He argued that the historian should write for all times, as “a free man, fearless, incorruptible, the friend of truth”;[5] and held up the work of Thucydides as the legislative template for all subsequent historians.[6] He argued that the "historian's sole task is to tell the tale as it happened" which is latter reflected in works of von Ranke among others.

Later influence

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  • Edward Gibbon, who wrote of “the inimitable Lucian”, owned the 1776 edition of Quomodo Historia Conscribenda Sit (Oxford)[8]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Richter, Daniel S. (2017). "Chapter 21: Lucian of Samosata". In Richter, Daniel S.; Johnson, William A. (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of the Second Sophistic. Vol. 1. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. p. 328-329. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199837472.013.26. ISBN 978-0-19-983747-2.
  2. ^ Lucian and Historiography
  3. ^ Butcher, S. H. (1904). Harvard Lectures on Greek Subjects. London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd. p. 249. Retrieved 18 March 2020 – via Internet Archive.
  4. ^ M Winkler, Fall of the Roman Empire (2012) p. 181-2
  5. ^ Butcher, S. H. (1904). Harvard Lectures on Greek Subjects. London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd. p. 250. Retrieved 18 March 2020 – via Internet Archive.
  6. ^ P J Rhodes, Intro, Thucydides: The Peloponnesian War (OUP 2009) p. l
  7. ^ D Marsh, Lucian and the Latins (1998) p. 29
  8. ^ E Gibbon, Abridged Decline and Fall (Penguin 2005) p. 63 and p. 782
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