What is history?

1. What is history?

2. History • historiē/ ἱστορίη = “inquiry” (Hdt.); to the Greeks, great deeds of great men • distinct from poetry (“what might happen” (Aristotle)), which draws upon “imagination” (poiesis / ποίησις) and “arrangement” (< fingo, fingere). Poetry was in verse and aimed to entertain, not educate • distinct from myth (“a traditional tale with secondary, partial reference to something of collective importance”), which was set in a nebulous time, not created by one individual, and told for pleasure, not analysis, for the masses • distinct from science (< scio, scire, “to know”) which is also a kind of inquiry, based on formulated and then tested hypotheses, which can be recreated and used to predict succeeding events • like the scientist, and unlike the poet and the mythographer, the historian claimed to be a detached, unbiased observer • History aimed to educate and examine and explain abstractions, large-scale issues and causation. Fictional works fill in gaps while history was and is meant to be analytical and, if it did fill in gaps, it was to do so with evidence

3. So, history … • is a form of discourse about the past • emphasizes critcalanalysis and interpretation of the surviving traces of the past, though historians disagree violently about how to use the evidence • usually is presented in prose narrative, like a story, governed by culturally specific unwritten rules and expectations about what an historical narrative should look like

4. History is not … • fiction, but that does not mean that the historian's imagination plays no role in reconstructing the past. • SO, IT IS a kind of fiction, although governed by certain generic conventions • myth, but that does not mean it is automatically always true. • SO, IT IS a kind of myth, as a story that helps us make sense of the world • propaganda, but that does not mean it is automatically neutral and objective • SO, IT IS a kind of propaganda, for it represents the historian’s personal point of view • science, but that does not mean the historian can't understand the workings of society in scientific terms and employ scientific methodologies • SO, IT IS a kind of science, for it asks questions, it assembles data, it interprets evidence and it expresses profound truths

5. So, finally, what is history? History is a particular way of telling a story about the past, which follows specific conventions prescribed by contemporary cultural contexts, and which claims to offer a trustworthy account of past events

6. Sources for, and the periodization, of Greek history

7. Ancient history according to Herodotus & Thucydides Compare the primary aims of Herodotus (prooimion)and Thucydides (1.1-12) in their histories? How are they similar, how do they differ, and how broad or narrow is each historian's scope? Relief amphora, Mykonos, ca. 670 BCE: The Trojan Horse

8. Select any two categories from D&G's discussion of sources. What would we not know about Greek history if these two types of sources had not survived? • Logographers & historians • Genres: historiography, biography, geography • Atthidographers • Political philosophers • Lexicographers & scholiasts • Orators • Poets • Genres: epic, lyric, epigrammatic, elegiac, tragic, & comedic poetry • Epigraphy • Papyrology

9. Literary sources for Greek history(f=focus; b=breadth; c=composition) • Historians/political philosophers: extant works • Herodotus’ Histories (f.: 499-479; b.: 600-479; c.: ca. 431) • Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War (f.: 432-411; b.: 432-404; c.: ca. 400) • Xenophon’s Hellenica (f.: 411-362; b.: same; c.: 362-354) • Aristotle’s Athenian Constitution (f.: 500-400 and 4th century; b.: 700-4th century; c.: 350-323) + contemporary political treatises

10. Literary sources for Greek history(f=focus; b=breadth; c=composition) • Biographers • Plutarch (f.: 7th-4th centuries; b: post-Trojan War-Roman empire; c.: 1st-2nd century CE) • Historians: non-extant works except fragments • Atthidographers (f.: 5th-4th centuries; b.: origins-4th century; c.: 4th century) • Ephorus’ Universal History (f.: post-Trojan War-4th century; b.: same; c.: 4th century) • DiodorusSiculus’ Historical Library(f.: universal history; b.: same; c.: 1st century)

11. Literary sources for Greek history(f=focus; b=breadth; c=composition) • Orators – 5th & 4thcenturies • Mostly Athenian politicians • Occasionally philosophical, always political • Venue: jury-courts & the assembly • Cases: private & public • Notable orators • Aeschines, Andocides, Antiphon, Isocrates, Lysias, Demosthenes

12. Literary sources for Greek history(f=focus; b=breadth; c=composition) • Epic poets • Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey(f.: heroic age: b.: same; c.: 750-700? later?) – one poet? • Hesiod’s Theogony (f.: origins; b.: same; c.: 750-700? later?) • Hesiod’s Works and Days (f.: 750-700?; b.: same: c.: same) • Homeric Cycle and Homeric Hymns (f.: heroic age; b.: same; c.: 7th-6th centuries)

13. Literary sources for Greek history(f=focus; b=breadth; c=composition) • Lyric poetry • sung to the lyre • Epigrammatic poetry • short, witty • Elegiac poetry • mournful • Notable poets • Theognis, Alcaeus, Solon, Simonides, Anacreon, Archilochus, Bacchylides, Phocylides, Pindar, Sappho, Xenophanes(f.: contemporary life; b: same; c.: 7th-5th centuries)

14. Literary sources for Greek history(f=focus; b=breadth; c=composition) • Tragic poets (3 compete annually, each with 4 plays – 3 tragedies, one satyr play) • Aeschylus: 525/4-456/5 (7 of 90 extant) • Sophocles: 496/5-406/5 (7 of 123 extant) • Euripides: 491/0-406/5 (19 of 91 extant) • Comic poets (3-5compete annually, eachwith one play) • Aristophanes:460-386(11 of 40 extant)

15. Dating sources • Internal evidence • references to events and social customs dated by other means (e.g., emergence of the polis, events in a war) • anachronisms – i.e., temporal dislocation (e.g., chariots in the Iliad) • External evidence • archaeological evidence

16. Material sources for Greek history:archaeological evidence: inscriptions • Epigraphy: inscriptions on stone, metal, terracotta – durable materials • typically contemporary • often fragmentary • nearly useless if not dated • Genres • poetry, laws, decrees, votes • treaties, dedications, honors

17. Material sources for Greek history:archaeological evidence: papyri • Primary medium for … day-to-day activities • correspondence • petitions • edicts • receipts • Limited survival of texts • Aristotle’s Athenian Constitution • Oxyrhynchos Historian • many fragments of (un)known works

18. Material sources for Greek history:other archaeological evidence: coins • Field of numismatics (<νομίζειν, to use according to νόμος – “law” or “custom”) • post 550 BCE, so not applicable earlier • limited use as propaganda, so little internal evidence • long periods of usage, so broad range of dates

19. Material sources for Greek history:other archaeological evidence: architecture, sculpture, vase painting • Architecture • often can be dated • internal ideologies • evidence of wealth • evidence of skill • Sculpture, vase painting • -can be dated stylistically • reveals social customs • high level of sophistication

20. Material sources for Greek history:other archaeological evidence: field data • Pollen analysis, petrology, animal bones • trade • economics • social customs • settlement patterns • public vs. private space • diet • environmental conditions

21. All sources for Greek history:literary and material • Context is key • Congruence is rare • Historians must draw upon all sources to complete the picture • Next time: datingschemes, climateand topography

23. Dating schemes: caveat emptor • Each polis used different systems (& calendars) • Athens: eponymous archon lists: 683/2, reliable p.425/4 • Panhellenic festivals • Olympiads: 766 • reliable post 600 • Religious offices • priestess of Hera at Argos

24. Dating schemes: putting it all together • Synchronisms between • Olympiads and Biblicalevents • Olympiads and Romanemperors • Squaring with the Gregorian calendar • Archaeological evidence • pottery, architecture, sculpture • often based on stylistics – development varies widely • Thucydides’ colonial foundations in Sicily, southern Italy • dates are relative; are they reliable? • destruction level of 480 in Athens: all material predates 480 • confirmation from other cultures: Near Eastern destruction levels, Egyptian Pharoaonic dates

25. Periodization of Greek history

26. Greece: topography & resources

27. Altitude High Low

28. Greece: topography & resources Topography • mountains, rocky soil, jagged coasts, few large fluvial plains; Aegean Sea; islands. Result regarding communities and communication? • result: relative isolation; communication by sea Climate • hot, dry summers; mild, rainy winters. Result regarding agriculture? • result: agriculture difficult, unpredictable Resources: food • flocks: goats, sheep, pigs; cattle rare, horses (expensive, used for warfare, travel) • crop diversification: oil (cooking), grapes (wine), some vegetables, barley (primary foodstuff). Result regarding diet? • result: proteins: fish; beans; other goods (e.g., wheat) imported Resources: minerals, timber • durable: bronze: copper (plentiful), tin (non-existent); iron (plentiful) • luxury: gold (rare), silver (mines in Attica south of Athens) • stone: limestone (plentiful), marble (Paros, Attica) • timber: northern Aegean / Thrace (structures, shipbuilding) • obsidian (volcanic glass): islands – e.g., Melos. Result regarding access? • result: control of sea for food, travel, commerce

29. Natural resources in archaic Greece

30. Testing a source’s reliability • Temporal proximity • Contextual fit • Intentionality

31. Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War 1.22 [1] With reference to the speeches in this history,some were delivered before the war began, others while it was going on; some I heard myself, others I got from various quarters; it was in all cases difficult to carry them word for word in one's memory, so my habit has been to make the speakers say what was in my opinion demanded of them by the various occasions, of course adhering as closely as possible to the general sense of what they really said. [2] And with reference to the narrative of events, far from permitting myself to derive it from the first source that came to hand, I did not even trust my own impressions, but it rests partly on what I saw myself, partly on what others saw for me, the accuracy of the report being always tried by the most severe and detailed tests possible. [3] My conclusions have cost me some labor from the want of coincidence between accounts of the same occurrences by different eye-witnesses, arising sometimes from imperfect memory, sometimes from undue partiality for one side or the other.

32. Testing a source’s reliability:Is Thucydides reliable? • Temporal proximity • Contextual fit • Intentionality