Bibliography
| Title: The reception of Herodotus from Cicero to Plutarch Type: Generic Year: 1991 Abstract: "The Ciceronian title Father of History and Plutarch's anti-Herodotean tract De Malignitate Herodoti are crucial problems in the reception of Herodotus. Cicero is found to have meant that Herodotus was the first to give literary distinction to the genre of history, not that he established standards of truth in history; Herodotean fabulae are seen to fit into ancient concepts of historiography. Plutarch's essay is studied in comparison with his other works; it is found that there is no common ground between his dismissal of Herodotus in this essay and his respectful treatment of Herodotus elsewhere. Examination is made of all authors of the 1st centuries B.C.-A.D. who cite Herodotus, along with some of the 2nd century A.D: Diodorus Siculus, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Aulus Gellius, Josephus, Longinus, Lucian, Pliny the Elder, Quintilian, and Strabo are discussed. The bulk of this study consists of simple reporting and evaluation of the Herodotean citations in each author. Herodotus is found to be so important an authority that even those who disagree with his information must acknowledge his prestige. Some modern attempts to prove the poor reputation of Herodotus in antiquity are shown to misinterpret certain notorious passages from ancient authors." Keywords: Greek and Roman historiography |