The Greek Antecedents of Roman Historiography

1
The Greek Antecedents of Roman Historiography

• Greek culture influenced by their Near-Eastern
  neighbours
• Phoenicians brought writing to Greeks ca. 9th
  century B.C. who adapted it to express complex
  ideas in Greek language

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The Homeric Epics

• The Iliad ca. 750 B.C. subject matter heroes at
  war
• The Odyssey ca. 725 B.C. subject matter the
  return of Odysseus in peace time
• Written down after centuries of oral tradition
• Myths divine myths, legends, folk tale elements
• Each poem in 12 books (15,000 and 12,000
  lines)

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Myth or History

• Not history in modern sense
• Epics were inspired
• For Greeks the Epics represented their idea
  about past
• Not important if true or not
• Provided their heritage, shaped their identity,
• Provided the basis for education,
• Passed on values, customs, code of behaviour

4
Hesiod ca. 700 B.C.

• Wrote 1 The Theogony 2 Works and Days
• The Theogony genealogy of the gods from the
  creation of the universe to the present reign of
  the Olympian gods - inspired literature
• Divine myths and legends
• Works and Days Form of didactic, moralistic poem
  and farmers almanac all in one, contains
  advice on farming, when to take a wife, how to be
  just etc.,
• Contains nasty misogynistic comments

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Ionia
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Ionian Thinkers also called Pre-Socratics

• Philosophers before Socrates
• Work only survives in fragments quoted by others
• Sought natural explanations for natural phenomena
• Explored rational explanations for 1. The
  origins of the universe, 2. The composition of
  the universe, 3. The plurality of phenomena

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Pre-Socratic Schools

• The Milesians Thales (624-546 BCE), Anaximander
  (610-546 BCE), Anaximines (585-525 BCE)
• The Pythagoreans Pythagoras (582-496 BCE)
• The Eleatics Xenophanes (570-470 BCE),
  Parmenides (510-440 BCE), Zeno (490-430 BCE)
• The Pluralists Empedocles (490-430 BCE),
  Anaxagoras (500-428 BCE)
• Heraclitus (535-475 BCE)

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The Milesians

• Sought the most basic unit of composition of the
  universe (arche)
• Interested in the problem of change and plurality
• Thales arche water
• Anaximenes arche air
• Anaximander arche apeiron (the unformed/union
  of opposites)

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The Pythagoreans

• Accepted the notion of the apeiron as the
  starting point for the universe
• The universe emerged according to mathematical
  principles and can be understood mathematically
• Mystics believed in the transmigration of souls

10
The Pluralists - Anaxagoras

• Universe is composed of 2 eternal elements 1.
  Spermata seeds, 2. Nous mind
• Spermata are tiny particles out of which specific
  things are composes (i.e. gold spermata, bread
  spermata, fire spermata etc.)
• Nous is a universal intelligence that causes the
  motion, combination, and dissolution of spermata

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The Atomists

• Leucippus (?) and Democritus (460-370 BCE)
• Work only survives in later authors (i.e.
  Lucretius, De Rerum Natura)
• The universe is composed of atoms and void
• Atoms tiny uniform objects which combine to
  form all physical matter
• Change is a function of coalescing and dissolving
  atoms

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The Greeks and the Birth of History

• Homer 8th century Iliad, Odyssey
• Hesiod ca. 700 B.C.
• Ionian Philosophers - Pre-Socratics
• Ionian Intellectual Revolution the passive
  acceptance of traditional ideas about natural
  phenomena and the cosmos challenged
• Passive acceptance of myths criticized

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The Greek Historians

• Hecataeus of Miletus ca. 500 B.C.
• Journey round the World
• Genealogies
• Herodotus of Halicarnassus c 490/480-429/5 B.C.
  The Histories
• Thucydides c. 460/55-399/8