Preface

Summary

The plan for this volume was conceived by Christopher M. Dawson, who took the first steps in soliciting contributions to it. His death on 27 April 1972 left the task of completing the undertaking to the present editor. The subject seems a fitting memorial to Adam Parry, for his most important and original work was on Thucydides, and he was always fascinated by the relationship between history and literature. The present volume tries to present an unusually broad panorama of the varieties of Greek historical writing. Chronologically, the historians treated range from the father of history in the fifth century b.c. to Herodian, who lived into the third century of the Christian era, and almost every century in between is represented. Geographically, they came from as far west as Sicily and as far east as Syria. They had in common the Greek language and the tradition of historical writing which is a distinguishing feature of Greek culture.

Not all the authors treated are historians, strictly speaking. Plutarch is a biographer, the ‘Old Oligarch’ wrote a political treatise, Aristophanes is a comedian and Aristotle a philosopher. But all are important historical sources. Plutarch, moreover, is at least a quasi-historian while Aristotle's treatise on the Athenian Constitution is in part an attempt at history. They all deserve discussion in a volume on the Greek historians.

Finally, the contributors to this volume examine their subjects from different points of view. Some consider their value as historical sources.