The Greek and Roman Historians (Classical World Series) Paperback – June 27, 2003

Timothy Duff's introduction to the writings of the Greek and Roman historians is an impressive achievement. I have been reading Homer, Plutarch, Thucydides and Livy of late and wanted to have something of an overview of their writings and those of their contemporaries. Professor Duff provides a succinct overview of about 700 years of historical writing.What Duff provides in 122 pages are chapters devoted to the work Herodotus, Thucydides, Livy and Tacitus. He also gives us discussions of Homer, Xenophon, Theopompos of Chios, Polybius, Dionysios of Halikarnassos, Cato the Elder, Sallust, Caesar, Suetonius, Plutarch, Arrian, Appian as well as many other minor figures or those whose writings we know only by citation by other authors.Let's linger on that last point. Duff is very good at pointing out how our view of the historians of the Classical World has been very much determined by those writings which managed to survive to the Renaissance. He points out, for example, that our knowledge of Tacitus is due to the survival of one manuscript (p.93) We would not have what we have of the Agricola, the Germanica, the Annals and the Histories without that one chance survival.Duff's organization is largely chronological. He uses that schema to lay out how certain themes developed over time. He sees the writings of the historians as serving many purposes. They defined what it was to be Greek (and later what it was to be Roman) by describing the Other (the barbarian de jour, as it were- the Persian, the Scythian, the Parthian, the Egyptian, the Gauls, Picts, etc.). They served to entertain. They served as a moral education by offering paragons both noble and free as well as examples of the perverse and the tyrannous.Duff also notes how the style and focus of historical writing changes. The influence of Thucydides and Herodotus led to a focus on political and military affairs. These men told the histories of city-states or of nations. But the histories they wrote were not necessarily tied down to strict chronology. Later, in the Roman Republic, history was organized annalistically. It was often written year by year, with the beginning of each year noted by the consuls elected and by notable omens. With the rise of the Roman Empire, with a government increasingly controlled by the emperor, biography became much more influential. The life history of a Tiberius or an Augustus became the outline of the history of the Empire.This book is designed to be used by students in classical studies in their first two years of university. It is hard to imagine any student at that stage that would not benefit from such a successful overview of its field. I highly recommend this book to anyone in that course of study or to any reasonably intelligent layperson who is reading in or about the Greeks and Romans.

I've been looking around for a simple book with an easy list and introduction to ancient Greek and Roman historians. This is short and concise--just what I was looking for, and a fast and easy shipment!

Very useful little book with all the essentials included, in an easy to read style - perfect for University exams.