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Chapter 16 - ‘When one assumes the ethos of writing history’

Polybius’ Historiographical Neologisms

from Part V - Innovation within Tradition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 December 2022

By
Giustina Monti
Edited by
K. Scarlett Kingsley ,
Giustina Monti  and
Tim Rood
K. Scarlett Kingsley
Affiliation:
Agnes Scott College, Decatur
Giustina Monti
Affiliation:
University of Lincoln
Tim Rood
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
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Summary

John Marincola has defined Polybius as ‘a highly intrusive explicator’ of his own narrative.1 Polybius regularly interrupts the main narrative of events to explain and clarify what procedure he is following. Such intrusions always retain a historiographical flavour, and Polybius comes up with words or expressions used in a new way and with a new nuance, which I define as ‘historiographical neologisms’. This chapter will show how Polybius inserts himself into a tradition (which he criticizes as well) in order to establish his own authority, and will highlight two ways: borrowing and revisiting terms from other genres – the much-discussed apodeiktike historie is a famous example2 – to give them a historiographical nuance, or creating new ones.

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The Authoritative Historian
Tradition and Innovation in Ancient Historiography
 , pp. 315 - 334
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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