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1 results

  • Conclusion

  • John Marincola, Florida State University
  • Foreword by Christopher Pelling, University of Oxford
  • Book:
    Authority and Tradition in Ancient Historiography
    Published online:
    31 January 2025
    Print publication:
    06 February 2025, pp 258-266

  • Summary

    Our study has concentrated on the explicit attempts by the ancient historians to convince the reader of their authority to narrate deeds, and to portray themselves as believable narrators of those deeds. We have seen how the dictates of ancient literary criticism enjoined authors to work within a tradition, and to show their innovation within that tradition. As certain historians became accepted models for imitation, their concerns and approach dictated for those who followed the proper way to write history. As the earlier historians were ’authoritative’, so their followers sought to imitate the manner by which those predecessors had constructed their own authority. It was in this way that authority and tradition were closely related, and so long as the belief in imitation held sway, there could be no authority outside of tradition.