The Authoritative Historian: Tradition and Innovation in Ancient Historiography
Edited by: K. Scarlett Kingsley, Giustina Monti, Tim Rood
In this volume, written in honour of John Marincola, an international group of scholars (seven of them from the Oxford faculty) revisits the themes of Marincola’s groundbreaking Authority and Tradition in Ancient Historiography. The nineteen chapters offer a series of case studies that explore how ancient historians’ approaches to their projects were informed both by the pull of tradition and by the ambition to innovate. The key themes explored are the relation of historiography to myth and poetry; the narrative authority exemplified by Herodotus, the ‘father’ of history; the use of ‘fictional’ literary devices in historiography; narratorial self-presentation; and self-conscious attempts to shape the historiographical tradition in new and bold ways.
