Title Moral history from Herodotus to Diodorus Siculus / Lisa Irene Hau

Published Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, [2016] ©2016

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Description 1 online resource (viii, 312 pages) Contents Hellenistic historiography. Polybius ; Diodorus Siculus ; Fragmentary Hellenistic historiography -- Classical historiography. Herodotus ; Thucydides ; Xenophon, Hellenica -- Fragmentary classical historiography Summary An investigation of moral-didactic techniques and messages in ancient Greek historiography. Why did human beings first begin to write history? Lisa Irene Hau argues that a driving force among Greek historians was the desire to use the past to teach lessons about the present and for the future. She uncovers the moral messages of the ancient Greek writers of history and the techniques they used to bring them across. Hau also shows how moral didacticism was an integral part of the writing of history from its inception in the 5th century BC, how it developed over the next 500 years in parallel with the development of historiography as a genre and how the moral messages on display remained surprisingly stable across this period. For the ancient Greek historiographers, moral didacticism was a way of making sense of the past and making it relevant to the present; but this does not mean that they falsified events: truth and morality were compatible and synergistic ends. Key features and benefits. Covers the five most substantially preserved historical texts from Classical and Hellenistic Greece: Herodotos, Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybios, and Diodoros Offers a comprehensive analysis of the moral-didactic techniques used and moral messages propounded by each of these authors Compares the practices and messages of the different works to arrive at a diachronic understanding of the role of moral didacticism in Classical and Hellenistic historiography Analysis Classics Classical Early and Medieval Ancient History Literary Studies Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 278-298) and indexes Notes English Print version record Subject Historiography -- Moral and ethical aspects -- Greece Literary studies : classical, early and medieval. Literary studies : general. Literature and literary studies. Literature : history and criticism. HISTORY -- Ancient -- Greece. Historiography -- Moral and ethical aspects Moral conditions SUBJECT Greece -- Moral conditions Subject Greece Form Electronic book ISBN 9781474411080 1474411088 9781474433181 1474433189 1474411096 9781474411097

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