How to Write History
How to Write History is the title of a study by the classical writer Lucian, which can be considered as the only work on the theory of history-writing to survive from antiquity.[1]
Themes
The first part of Lucian’s essay involved a critical attack on contemporary historians for confusing history with panegyric; overloading it with irrelevant details; and weighing it down with overblown rhetoric.[2] Instead, he recommended the virtues of clear narration, and the valorisation of truth.[3] Lucian considered that the historian should write for all times, as “a free man, fearless, incorruptible, the friend of truth”.[4]
Later influence
- The early Renaissance saw the essay taken up by figures like Guarino da Verona and Giovanni Pontano.[5]
- Edward Gibbon, who wrote of “the inimitable Lucian”, owned the 1776 edition of Quomodo Historia Conscribenda Sit (Oxford)[6]
See also
References
- ^ Lucian and Historiography
- ^ S H Butcher, Harvard Lectures on Greek Subjects (London 1904) p. 249
- ^ M Winkler, Fall of the Roman Empire (2012) p. 181-2
- ^ S H Butcher, Harvard Lectures on Greek Subjects (London 1904) p. 250
- ^ D Marsh, Lucian and the Latins (1998) p. 29
- ^ E Gibbon, Abridged Decline and Fall (Penguin 2005) p. 63 and p. 782