Luke Pitcher – författare

'History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon', said Napoleon. Yet the actual writing of history, especially ancient history, is a practice that often prompts more discord than assent. In his new textbook, Luke Pitcher aims to overcome the hostility which exists between two rival camps in their study of classical historiography. The first camp looks at the classical historians with an eye to what data they can provide about the ancient world. The second camp examines the ancient writers as literary texts in their own right, employing the tools of literary criticism and engaging with such matters as narrative artistry.Attempting to fuse these two - mutually suspicious - approaches, Luke Pitcher's attractive introduction offers undergraduate students of classics the first comprehensive introduction to historiography in antiquity on the market. It unites the nitty-gritty of the historian's trade (the finding and managing of data) to an awareness of the importance of style, form, allusion and composition.The book also seeks to do justice to individual classical historians, and discusses such important figures as Livy, Tacitus, Herodotus, Cicero, Plutarch and Lucian. A comprehensive bibliography and glossary are included. "Writing Ancient History" at last does full justice to the mechanics of history-writing in the ancient world.

This volume presents the first comprehensive study in English of the Roman History by Appian of Alexandria. Appian was an Egyptian Greek and Roman citizen, who wrote his history of Rome in twenty-four books, covering the period from the foundation of the city to Trajan's wars, in the middle of the second century CE. Luke Pitcher explains and analyses what it is known about Appian's life, the structure of his work (which has not survived completely intact), and his use of sources. He then examines how Appian organizes and structures his material, and the considerations which inform his treatment of spaces, peoples, polities, and individuals within history. A full appreciation of Appian's achievement requires an awareness of the deeper structures of the Roman History as a whole: in particular, how the first half of the work (which, unusually, covers Roman conquests area by area, rather than in one long chronological sweep) lays the ground for the second, where towering personalities such as Julius Caesar bring an end to the Roman Republic in the five books of the Civil Wars. The closing chapters build on these arguments to create a picture of what Appian tries to achieve in his history, and what this says about him as a historian.

This volume presents the first comprehensive study in English of the Roman History by Appian of Alexandria. Appian was an Egyptian Greek and Roman citizen, who wrote his history of Rome in twenty-four books, covering the period from the foundation of the city to Trajan's wars, in the middle of the second century CE. Luke Pitcher explains and analyses what it is known about Appian's life, the structure of his work (which has not survived completely intact), and his use of sources. He then examines how Appian organizes and structures his material, and the considerations which inform his treatment of spaces, peoples, polities, and individuals within history. A full appreciation of Appian's achievement requires an awareness of the deeper structures of the Roman History as a whole: in particular, how the first half of the work (which, unusually, covers Roman conquests area by area, rather than in one long chronological sweep) lays the ground for the second, where towering personalities such as Julius Caesar bring an end to the Roman Republic in the five books of the Civil Wars. The closing chapters build on these arguments to create a picture of what Appian tries to achieve in his history, and what this says about him as a historian.

This volume presents the first comprehensive study in English of the Roman History by Appian of Alexandria. Appian was an Egyptian Greek and Roman citizen, who wrote his history of Rome in twenty-four books, covering the period from the foundation of the city to Trajan's wars, in the middle of the second century CE. Luke Pitcher explains and analyses what it is known about Appian's life, the structure of his work (which has not survived completely intact), and his use of sources. He then examines how Appian organizes and structures his material, and the considerations which inform his treatment of spaces, peoples, polities, and individuals within history. A full appreciation of Appian's achievement requires an awareness of the deeper structures of the Roman History as a whole: in particular, how the first half of the work (which, unusually, covers Roman conquests area by area, rather than in one long chronological sweep) lays the ground for the second, where towering personalities such as Julius Caesar bring an end to the Roman Republic in the five books of the Civil Wars. The closing chapters build on these arguments to create a picture of what Appian tries to achieve in his history, and what this says about him as a historian.