Antique Greek historiography Cover Image

Grecka historiografia antyczna
Antique Greek historiography

Author(s): Roman Krawczyk
Subject(s): Oral history, Ancient World, Rhetoric
Published by: Instytut Historii UwS

Summary/Abstract: In the Greek world in the first millennium BC, historiography was mainly limited to tales about the past of one's own family and their relations with other families. In the beginning, these tales were passed down orally, and with time, they began to take written form. It was not until the beginning of the 5th century BC that we may speak of what we today understand as proper antique historiography. This paper consists of three parts. In the first part, the author concentrates on the early stage of writing down tales about past events by Ionian logographers. In the second part, the output of the most prominent representatives of antique Greek historiography including Herodotus of Halicarnassus (490-425 BC), Thucydides of Athens (460-ca. 400 BC), Xenophon of Athens (432-353 BC) and Polybius of Megalopolis (200-ca. 118 BC) is analyzed. The third part of this paper describes two currents in antique historiography, namely, rhetorical and biographical historiography.

  • Issue Year: 2013
  • Issue No: 2
  • Page Range: 9-22
  • Page Count: 14
  • Language: Polish