Timaeus of Tauromenium and Hellenistic Historiography

ISBN-13: 9781107000971 / Angielski / Twarda / 2012 / 316 str.

Christopher A Baron

Opis

Timaeus of Tauromenium (350 260 BC) wrote the authoritative account of the Greeks in the Western Mediterranean. Like almost all the Hellenistic historians, his work survives only in fragments. Beyond an up-to-date treatment of this important author, this book shows that both the nature of the evidence and modern assumptions about historical writing in the Hellenistic period have skewed our treatment and judgement of lost historians. For Timaeus, much of our evidence is preserved in the polemical context of Polybius' Book 12. When we move outside that framework and examine the fragments of Timaeus in their proper context, we gain a greater appreciation for his method and his achievement, including his use of polemical invective and his composition of speeches. This examination of Timaeus also conveys a broader impression of the major lines of Hellenistic historiography."

Recenzje

'Baron has produced a highly readable and engaging study … this book is certain to play an integral role in future discussions of Hellenistic historiography.' Liv Mariah Yarrow, Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Spis treści

1. How to study a fragmentary historian; 2. Timaeus' life and works; 3. Timaeus' legacy: Rome and beyond; 4. The distorting lens: Polybius and Timaeus; 5. A stranger in a strange land? Timaeus in Athens; 6. Polemical invective and the Hellenistic historian's craft; 7. The missing link? Pythagoras and Pythagoreans in Timaeus; 8. 'Just like a schoolboy': Timaeus and his speeches; 9. Generic choices: the shape of Timaeus' Histories; 10. Herodotean historiography in the Hellenistic age; 11. Conclusion; Appendix A. New delimitations or translations; Appendix B. Philodemus, On Poems and Timaeus T 15b.