How to Write History (Ancient Greek: Πῶς δεῖ ἱστορίαν συγγράφειν) is the title of a study by the classical Syrian writer Lucian, which may be considered the only work on the theory of history-writing to survive from antiquity.
Themes
The first part of Lucian’s essay involved a critical attack on contemporary historians. Lucian maintained that they confused history with panegyric, overloaded it with irrelevant details, and weighed it down with overblown rhetoric.
Lucian recommended instead the virtues of clear narration, and the valorisation of truth. He argued that the historian should write for all times, as “a free man, fearless, incorruptible, the friend of truth”; and held up the work of Thucydides as the legislative template for all subsequent historians. He argued that the "historian's sole task is to tell the tale as it happened" which is latter reflected in works of von Ranke among others.
Later influence
- The early Renaissance saw the essay taken up by figures like Guarino da Verona and Giovanni Pontano.
- Edward Gibbon, who wrote of “the inimitable Lucian”, owned the 1776 edition of Quomodo Historia Conscribenda Sit (Oxford)
See also
References
- Richter, Daniel S. (2017). "Chapter 21: Lucian of Samosata". In Richter, Daniel S.; Johnson, William A. (eds.). The Oxford Handbook of the Second Sophistic. Vol. 1. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press. p. 328-329. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199837472.013.26. ISBN 978-0-19-983747-2.
- Lucian and Historiography
- Butcher, S. H. (1904). Harvard Lectures on Greek Subjects. London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd. p. 249. Retrieved 18 March 2020 – via Internet Archive.
- M Winkler, Fall of the Roman Empire (2012) p. 181-2
- Butcher, S. H. (1904). Harvard Lectures on Greek Subjects. London: Macmillan and Co., Ltd. p. 250. Retrieved 18 March 2020 – via Internet Archive.
- P J Rhodes, Intro, Thucydides: The Peloponnesian War (OUP 2009) p. l
- D Marsh, Lucian and the Latins (1998) p. 29
- E Gibbon, Abridged Decline and Fall (Penguin 2005) p. 63 and p. 782
External links
- "The Way to Write History". The Works of Lucian of Samosata. Complete with exceptions specified in the preface. Vol. II. Translated by Fowler, H. W.; Fowler, F. G. Oxford: Clarendon Press. 1905. pp. 109-136. Retrieved 23 March 2020 – via Internet Archive.
- "How to Write History". LUCIAN. Vol. VI. Translated by K. Kilburn. London and Cambridge, Massachusetts: William Heinemann Ltd. and Harvard University Press. 1959. pp. 1–73. Retrieved 18 March 2020 – via Internet Archive.
- The Way to Write History
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| Works by Lucian | |
| Pseudo-Lucianic writings | |