CHAPTER 7 - Ancient Historiography as History
CHAPTER 7
Ancient Historiography as History
“. . . ancient historians understood the narrative framework to be an intentional literary creation that would interpret the actions and events being described.”
TODD PENNER1
“On balance, therefore, tendentiousness, though an omnipresent danger, probably threatened the integrity of [ancient] historiography no more than in present times.”
C. W. FORNARA2
The view that ancient writers cared little for historical accuracy, or that blends all narrative genres as if all were equally novelistic, is misinformed. As we have noted, biography and history overlap in their interests, so historical method is relevant for understanding biographies. Because (as we have also noted) one of the Gospels, Luke, belongs to a larger historical project (Luke-Acts), comparisons with ancient historiography will prove especially relevant there.
Ancient historians were interested both in facts and in how they communicated them, both in what we today consider historical information and in delivery (conventional literary or rhetorical presentation). These concerns mingled inseparably in their work, but we shall try to separate them into two chapters here. The first will address mostly ancient historians’ use of genuine information. The second will focus on how they dressed up that information for their audience. Both can inform how we understand the Gospel writers, since they will illustrate how these authors expected an ancient audience to hear their works.
Most historians did value historical accuracy regarding events where they could achieve it; they often displayed critical thinking regarding sources (as often, though not always, exemplified in Polybius); and they recognized that sources closer to the events were more apt to be accurate than later ones were.