HE: Historiography Study

You cannot apply 20th century criteria to the first historians

"The father of history" (cicero) "father of lies" (plutarch)

The father of scientific history

Identify Context Purpose Type of history Methodology Objectivity

"To preserve the memory of the past"

Intended to be read aloud for an audience

Observations, inquiries, oral histories due to lack of other types

He was Athenocentric,but gave some credit to Sparta

Eyewitnesses, personal observations

He constructed and added speeches which he had heard, which he thought the situation demanded

The Peloponnesian War

He thought that the Peloponnesian War was the most important war in history Posterity To Teach lessons

Believed in a balanced view and recorded the facts

Perspective

only epic poetry; Homer

Names them precisely

cross referenced accounts when faced with info he doubted; thus coming to his own conclusions; evidence of distortion

Used them to convey his personal opinion

The speeches in his work are made up because he had no way of recording them, word for word

Exploited the techniques of oral delivery to keep an audience interested

A unified narrative w/ Persian Wars as his central theme

Divine intervention; but was maybe just appealing to his audiences (how could it be enjoyed in it's context?)

customs, manners, myths, geography

doesn't think he was trying to teach in his work

"even though he is the father of history, he is not really a historian"

Oral evidence. Found, assessed, compared.

wanted to tell the truth about PP war reveal things about human nature, that people in power should know

"he wasn't attempting to list, but to enter the mind of his character and discuss his feelings and behaviour"

tight, direct, based on eyewitness, political/military narrative. influences renaissance writers

To convert pagans. Propagandist

200 years after Rome. Anglo-Saxon christian. Teacher. Propagandist.

First consistent attempt to date events using the incarnation of Christ as focal point

Cites them, using a wide range. Frequent divine causation/miracles. Access to monastery libraries

manipulated it to prove a point; i.e. on a list of kings, he missed out two pagan one's in purpose

Propagandist. Bias to Bernicia; showed patriotism towards it

they draw a picture, which is close but can never be the ultimate truth

Herodotus "My history"

5th Century

ring composition

"whatever seemed appropriated to me for each spark to say in the particular circumstances"

Also 5th century

the realm of politics and war

Wrote just after PP war Greece was Athens and Sparta

exiled from Halicarnassus for plotting against Persian rule

All myths and legends based in reality Explained some things through divine intervention

to record great dead for future generations explain events through analysis of personal relationships; how people came into conflict

Travelled and personally collected data through interviews Questioned sources Offered myth, legend and fact

concentrated on main characters, their movies and actions wrote for a greek audience

"the very ink with which all history is written is merely fluid prejudice"

A hagiographer

7th-8th century England

violent, disunited, lawless England. It used to be under Roman rule, but by the end of the century Roman rule had been consolidated

Ecclesiastical History