Past Perspectives : Studies in Greek and Roman Historical Writing Book

The ten papers that make up this volume were originally presented at a conference on 'The Greek and Roman Historians', held at the University of Leeds in 1983. Some of the articles investigate in detail the assumptions, prejudices and methods, which were brought to their works by writers as separate in time as Herodotus and Ammianus, as opposed in outlook as Thucydides and Dionysius, or as different in practical approach as Xenophon, Plutarch and Tacitus. Other papers, more wide-ranging in scope, examine respectively the validity of the traditions about early Rome, the function of historical writing in Rome of the second and first centuries BC, and the contemporary and later source material for the Caesarian tyrannicides. In an Epilogue the editors discuss the main themes that emerge from the collection.