How to Write History explained

How to Write History (Greek, Ancient (to 1453);: Πῶς δεῖ ἱστορίαν συγγράφειν) is the title of a study by the classical Syrian^[1] writer Lucian, which may be considered the only work on the theory of history-writing to survive from antiquity.^[2]

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.^[3]

Lucian recommended instead the virtues of clear narration, and the valorisation of truth.^[4] He argued that the historian should write for all times, as “a free man, fearless, incorruptible, the friend of truth”;^[5] and held up the work of Thucydides as the legislative template for all subsequent historians.^[6] 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.^[7]
• Edward Gibbon, who wrote of “the inimitable Lucian”, owned the 1776 edition of Quomodo Historia Conscribenda Sit (Oxford)^[8]

See also

• Anneus Florus
• A True History
• Polybius

External links

• Book: Fowler, H. W. . Henry Watson Fowler . Francis George Fowler . Fowler, F. G. . The Way to Write History . The Works of Lucian of Samosata. Complete with exceptions specified in the preface . Oxford . Clarendon Press . 1905 . II . 109-136 . Internet Archive . 23 March 2020.
• Book: LUCIAN . How to Write History. K. Kilburn . VI . 1959 . William Heinemann Ltd. and Harvard University Press. London and Cambridge, Massachusetts . 1–73 . https://archive.org/details/L430LucianVIDipsadsSaturnaliaHerodotusOrAetionZeuxisOrAntiochusHarmonidesHesiod/page/n15/mode/2up . 18 March 2020 . Internet Archive.
• The Way to Write History

Notes and References

1. Book: Richter, Daniel S.. 2017. Chapter 21: Lucian of Samosata. The Oxford Handbook of the Second Sophistic. 1. Richter. Daniel S.. Johnson. William A.. Oxford, England. Oxford University Press. 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199837472.013.26. 978-0-19-983747-2. 328-329.
2. http://people.duke.edu/~wj25/UC_Web_Site/Lucian/Syllabus.htm Lucian and Historiography
3. Book: Butcher, S. H. . Samuel_Butcher_(classicist). Harvard Lectures on Greek Subjects . London . Macmillan and Co., Ltd. . 1904 . 249 . 18 March 2020. Internet Archive.
4. M Winkler, Fall of the Roman Empire (2012) p. 181-2
5. Book: Butcher, S. H. . Samuel_Butcher_(classicist). Harvard Lectures on Greek Subjects . London . Macmillan and Co., Ltd. . 1904 . 250 . 18 March 2020. Internet Archive.
6. P J Rhodes, Intro, Thucydides: The Peloponnesian War (OUP 2009) p. l
7. D Marsh, Lucian and the Latins (1998) p. 29
8. E Gibbon, Abridged Decline and Fall (Penguin 2005) p. 63 and p. 782