Roman Historiography

ANDREAS MEHL is Professor of Ancient History at the Martin Luther University at Halle and Wittenberg. He is the author of Seleukos Nikator und sein Reich (1986); Tacitus über Kaiser Claudius: Die Ereignisse Am Hof (1974); and Römische Geschichtsschreibung: Grundlagen und Entwicklungen: eine Einführung (Stuttgart, 2001). HANS-FRIEDRICH MUELLER is the William D. Williams Professor of Classics at Union College in Schenectady, New York. He is the author of Roman Religion in Valerius Maximus (2002) and the editor of an abridgment of Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (2003).

“The book can be used either as a whole or as a reference for individual authors and ages and is well worth owning and studying.”  (New England Classical Journal, 1 May 2015)  Named CHOICE Outstanding Title for 2012"Appropriate for advanced undergraduate students, this work provides a foundation for further study of classical historical writing. (Annotation ©2011 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)." (Book News, 1 August 2011)

• Translator’s Preface ixIntroduction: The Importance of Ancient Historiography and the Purpose of this Book 1Chapter 1: Ancient Literature and Roman Historiography 91.1 Roman Literature and its Relation to Greek Literature 91.2 Roman Historiography and the City of Rome 121.3 The Claims of Artistry and Truth in Ancient, especially Roman, Historiography 171.3.1 Literary Artistry and Moral Preoccupations in Ancient Historiography 181.3.2 “History is what Actually Happened” – Ancient Historiography and the Modern Science of History 26Chapter 2: The Formation and Establishment of Tradition in the Ruling Class of the Early and Middle Roman Republic 332.1 Family Histories and Clan Traditions 342.2 The Annales Maximi and the Almanacs of Publius Mucius Scaevola 37Chapter 3: Early Roman Historiography: Self-Justification and Memory in earlier Annalistic Writing 413.1 Early Annalistic Writing (I) 433.1.1 Quintus Fabius Pictor 433.1.2 Later Authors (From Cincius Alimentus to Postumius Albinus) 483.2 Early Annalistic Writing (II) 493.2.1 Marcus Porcius Cato 513.2.2 Other Authors (from Cassius Hemina to Sempronius Asellio) 553.3 Early Historical Epic in Rome (Naevius and Ennius) 60Chapter 4: The Historiography of Rome between the Fronts of the Civil Wars 634.1 Later Annalistic Writing: Optimates vs. Populares and Traditional Annalistic Writing vs. Contemporary History 664.2 Autobiographies, Memoirs, Hypomnemata, Commentarii, and their Infl uence on the Historiography of Current Events 694.2.1 Self-Representations until Cicero 714.2.2 Caesar’s Commentarii 724.3 The History of Current Events Made to Order and Contemporary Concepts of Historiography (Cicero) 774.4 Biography (Cornelius Nepos) 814.5 The Experience of the Collapsing and Ruined Republic 844.5.1 Gaius Sallustius Crispus 844.5.2 Gaius Asinius Pollio 944.6 Antiquarian Writings 96Chapter 5: Augustan Rome, Roman Empire, and other Peoples and Kingdoms 985.1 Titus Livius: Roman History from Romulus to Augustus in its Entirety 1005.2 World History, the History of the World beyond Rome, and Roman History by Non-Romans and New Romans 1105.2.1 World History and Roman History (from Diodorus to Juba) 1115.2.2 Dionysius of Halicarnassus: Early Rome and the Greeks 1145.2.3 Pompeius Trogus: World History round about Rome 1165.2.4 Universal Chronology (Castor and Dionysius) 119Chapter 6: Imperial History and the History of Emperors – Imperial History as the History of Emperors 1216.1 Empire and “Republic”: Senatorial Historiography 1276.1.1 Gaius (?) Velleius Paterculus 1306.1.2 Authors of the Julio-Claudian and Flavian Period (from Cremutius Cordus to Pliny the Younger) 1336.1.3 Publius (?) Cornelius Tacitus 1366.1.4 Lucius Cl(audius) Cassius Dio Cocceianus 1516.2 Rome and Foreign Peoples 1566.2.1 Josephus / Flavius Josephus: Jews and Others 1576.2.2 Appian of Alexandria: A Retrospective View of the Establishment of Rome’s World Domination 1626.3 Imperial History as Imperial Biography 1656.3.1 Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus 1666.3.2 Marius Maximus and Herodian 1706.3.3 Historia Augusta / Scriptores Historiae Augustae 1716.4 Personal History and Biography in the High Empire beyond Roman Emperors 1786.4.1 Curtius Rufus and Arrian of Nicomedia: Histories of Alexander 1786.4.2 Plutarch of Chaeronea: Parallel Lives 1836.5 History in “Pocket-Size” 1866.5.1 From the Epitome of Livy, the Epitome of Trogus, and Florus to Lucius Ampelius 1876.5.2 The Historical Epitomes of the Fourth Century A.D. (Aurelius Victor, Eutropius, Festus) 1916.6 Exempla-Literature and Historical Understanding 197Chapter 7: Roman History and Universal History between Classical Religion (“Paganism”) and Christianity 1997.1 Zosimus and his Predecessors: Classically Religious Historiography and Historical Interpretation in a Christian Age 2037.2 Ammianus Marcellinus: Indifferent to Religion? 2077.3 Christian Historiography 2167.3.1 Church History (Eusebius and Rufinus) 2197.3.2 From Classically Religious Chronography to Christian Universal Chronicle (Eusebius, Jerome, Sulpicius) 2237.3.3 Orosius: Universal History through the Lens of Theology 2297.3.4 Procopius of Caesarea: The History of Current Events in Transition from Rome to Byzantium 237Chapter 8: Some Basic Principles of Ancient Historical Thought 243Chronological Table 252Notes 255Select Bibliography 2641. General Bibliography 2641.1 Editions, Translations, and Commentaries for the Historiographical and Biographical Works Treated in this Book 2641.2 Editions of Historiographical Works and Historical Epics in Greek and Latin that Survive only in Fragments 2701.3 Histories of Greek and Latin Literature, especially Historiography: Recent Surveys and Collections 2711.4 Ancient Historiography, especially Roman: its Basic Literary, Social, and Intellectual Contexts 2722. The Formation and Establishment of Tradition in the Ruling Class of the Early and Middle Roman Republic 2753. Early Roman Historiography: Self-Justification and Memory in Early Annalistic Writing 2764. The Historiography of Rome between the Fronts of the Civil Wars 2775. Augustan Rome, Roman Empire, and other Peoples and Kingdoms 2796. Imperial History and the History of Emperors – Imperial History as the History of Emperors 2807. Roman History and Universal History between Classical Religion (“Paganism”) and Christianity 284Index 287