John Marincola (FSU): The Anxieties of the Contemporary Historian

Date
Fri November 10th 2017, 12:30 - 1:30pm
Event Sponsor
Department of Classics
Location
Building 110, Rm 112
John Marincola (FSU): The Anxieties of the Contemporary Historian

The contemporary historian was a fixture of the cultural landscape of Greece and Rome from the time of Thucydides onwards. Through the centuries, even under autocrats, even in regimes notably hostile to the free expression of ideas, the contemporary historian was to be found. Thucydides expresses without reserve the superiorities of contemporary over non-contemporary history, and his successors repeat these with great self-confidence and assuredness. This paper explores both in the historians and other writers the recognition of the problematic nature of many of these claims, and some of the ‘anxieties’ associated particularly with the writing of contemporary history in Greece and Rome.

John Marincola is Leon Golden Professor of Classics at the Florida State University. His interests are in Greek and Roman historiography and rhetoric. His publications include Authority and Tradition in Ancient Historiography (1997), Greek Historians (2001), A Companion to Greek and Roman Historiography (2007), and On Writing History from Herodotus to Herodian (2016). He is currently writing a commentary with Christopher Pelling on Books 6 and 7 of Thucydides.

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