GRC40320 Making History in Antiquity

Academic Year 2024/2025

For Spring 2024-5 the main author studied will be Xenophon of Athens. The set text will be Xenophon's Anabasis, which documents the story of the failed coup of Cyrus the Younger against King Artaxerxes II and the journey that Xenophon and the Ten Thousand Greek mercenaries made to escape from what is now Iraq to return to the Greek cities. We also will draw on selections from Xenophon's wider writing, as well as some of the speeches of Isocrates and the works of other historians, such as Ctesias and Diodorus Siculus that offer other perspectives on the Ten Thousand to those of Xenophon.

Greek and Roman historians and biographers composed some of the most impressive literary works that have survived from antiquity. They often constitute our main historical sources for: the Persian Wars and ‘Golden Age’ Athens; the secretive military society of Sparta; the conquests of Alexander and attempted consolidation of his successors; as well as the rise and fall of Rome. As these authors ‘made history’ and drafted war monographs, memoirs, universal or annalistic histories, and biographies they established rules and guidelines for the genre. In so doing they blended poetry and mythical tales, drew on collective memory, personal anecdote, and invented traditions, adapted topics and themes from philosophy, rhetoric, and political theory, and crafted narratives recording the trials and tribulations of the human experience. These narratives reflected, and also helped to shape, the values of the societies in which these ancient authors lived; their works are a must-read for all students of the ancient world. In this module you will dip in and out of this written record, focusing on selections that illustrate how ancient authors made history. In examining the works of Greek and Roman historians and biographers students will engage in in-depth thinking into ancient historical writing and understand the advantages and limitations of textual evidence for learning about the past. We will examine the ancient rules for writing history and how these expectations compare to modern theories and approaches.

Authors studied on this module be drawn from both the Greek and Roman worlds, but the set text may vary from year to year. Indicative authors may include, but are not limited to: Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybius, Diodorus Siculus, Sallust, Livy, Tacitus, Suetonius, Plutarch, Lucian, Arrian, and Appian.