Arrian the Historian
Writing the Greek Past in the Roman Empire
Seiten
2021
University of Texas Press (Verlag)
978-1-4773-2186-7 (ISBN)
University of Texas Press (Verlag)
978-1-4773-2186-7 (ISBN)
The most comprehensive study to date of Arrian of Nicomedia as a historical thinker, this book enriches broader understandings of the way history is written and sheds new light on intellectual culture in the Roman Empire.
During the first centuries of the Roman Empire, Greek intellectuals wrote a great many texts modeled on the dialect and literature of Classical Athens, some 500 years prior. Among the most successful of these literary figures were sophists, whose highly influential display oratory has been the prevailing focus of scholarship on Roman Greece over the past fifty years. Often overlooked are the period’s historians, who spurned sophistic oral performance in favor of written accounts. One such author is Arrian of Nicomedia.
Daniel W. Leon examines the works of Arrian to show how the era's historians responded to their sophistic peers’ claims of authority and played a crucial role in theorizing the past at a time when knowledge of history was central to defining Greek cultural identity. Best known for his history of Alexander the Great, Arrian articulated a methodical approach to the study of the past and a notion of historical progress that established a continuous line of human activity leading to his present and imparting moral and political lessons. Using Arrian as a case study in Greek historiography, Leon demonstrates how the genre functioned during the Imperial Period and what it brings to the study of the Roman world in the second century.
During the first centuries of the Roman Empire, Greek intellectuals wrote a great many texts modeled on the dialect and literature of Classical Athens, some 500 years prior. Among the most successful of these literary figures were sophists, whose highly influential display oratory has been the prevailing focus of scholarship on Roman Greece over the past fifty years. Often overlooked are the period’s historians, who spurned sophistic oral performance in favor of written accounts. One such author is Arrian of Nicomedia.
Daniel W. Leon examines the works of Arrian to show how the era's historians responded to their sophistic peers’ claims of authority and played a crucial role in theorizing the past at a time when knowledge of history was central to defining Greek cultural identity. Best known for his history of Alexander the Great, Arrian articulated a methodical approach to the study of the past and a notion of historical progress that established a continuous line of human activity leading to his present and imparting moral and political lessons. Using Arrian as a case study in Greek historiography, Leon demonstrates how the genre functioned during the Imperial Period and what it brings to the study of the Roman world in the second century.
Daniel W. Leon is an assistant professor of classics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Acknowledgments
Note on Texts and Translations
Introduction
Chapter 1. Amateurs, Experts, and History
Chapter 2. Novelty and Revision in the Works of Arrian
Chapter 3. Alexander among the Kings of History
Chapter 4. Sickness, Death, and Virtue
Conclusion
Appendix: The Date of the Anabasis
Abbreviations in the Notes and Bibliography
Notes
Bibliography
Index Locorum
General Index
| Erscheinungsdatum | 23.04.2021 |
|---|---|
| Verlagsort | Austin, TX |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 152 x 229 mm |
| Gewicht | 426 g |
| Themenwelt | Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Vor- und Frühgeschichte |
| ISBN-10 | 1-4773-2186-1 / 1477321861 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-1-4773-2186-7 / 9781477321867 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
| Haben Sie eine Frage zum Produkt? |
Mehr entdecken
aus dem Bereich
aus dem Bereich
auf den Spuren der frühen Zivilisationen
Buch | Hardcover (2023)
C.H.Beck (Verlag)
CHF 27,95
Was Pompeji über uns erzählt
Buch | Hardcover (2023)
Propyläen (Verlag)
CHF 44,75
