Herodotus was the first writer in the West to conceive the value
of creating a record of the recent past. He found a way to
co-ordinate the often conflicting data of history, ethnology, and
culture. The Historical Method of Herodotus explores the
intellectual habits and the literary principles of this pioneer
writer of prose. Donald Lateiner argues, against the perception
that Herodotus' work seems amorphous and ill organized, that the
Histories contain their own definition of historical significance.
He examines patterns of presentation and literary structure in
narratives, speeches, and direct communications to the reader, in
short, the conventions and rhetoric of history as Herodotus created
it. This rhetoric includes the use of recurring themes, the
relation of speech to reported actions, indications of doubt,
stylistic idiosyncrasies, frequent reference to nonverbal
behaviours, and strategies of opening and ending. Lateiner shows
how Herodotus sometimes suppresses information on principle and
sometimes compels the reader to choose among contending versions of
events. His inventories of Herodotus' methods allow the reader to
focus on typical practice, not misleading exception. In his
analysis of the structuring concepts of the Histories, Lateiner
scrutinizes Herodotean time and chronology. He considers the
historian's admiration for ethnic freedom and autonomy, the rule of
law, and the positive values of conflict. Despite these apparent
biases, he argues, the text's intellectual and moral preferences
present a generally cool and detached account from which an
authorial personality rarely emerges.
The Historical Method of Herodotus illuminates the
idiosyncrasies and ambitious nature of a major text in classics and
the Western tradition and touches on aspects of historiography,
ancient history, rhetoric, and the history of ideas.
General
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