Bibliography
| Title: Thackeray's Assistant Hypothesis. A Stylometric Evaluation Pages: 262-275 Type: Generic Year: 1997 Abstract: "Martínez, F. García in JSJ 29,2 (1998) 223: In the following pages, I will report on my use of the techniques of stylometry - the statistical analysis of quantifiable stylistic features - to evaluate Thackeray's hypothesis. In brief, I will show that stylometric evidence for a 'Sophoclean' assistant in Ant. 15-16 is lacking, but there is some stylometric evidence that may suggest a non-Josephan hand in ant. 17-19, the terrain of the supposed 'Thucydidean' assistant. // Matthews, Christopher R. in: NTAb 42,2 (1998) 347: This study employs a stylometric method centered on the rates at which an author uses certain function words (e.g. particles, conjunctions, prepositions) to evaluate H.S. J. Thackeray's hypothesis that ""assistants"" (sunergoi) were responsible for writing the majority of Josephus' antiquities 15-19. It concludes that while the stylometric evidence for Thackeray's ""Sophoclean"" assistant in Antiquities 15-16 is lacking, there may be a hand that differs from that of Josephus in books 17-19, which Thackeray assigned to a ""Thucydidean"" assistant. Since the style in the latter books differs in a important way from that of Thucydides, it cannot be assumed that it reflects Josephan mimicry of Thucydides. Thus the possibility that Josephus did use an assistant in some manner in Antiquities 17-19 should be reconsidered. // Hieke, Thomas in: OTA 21,3 (1998) 516: H. St. J. Thackeray proposed, in 1929, that the ""assistants"" (synergoi) Josephus used in his production of the Greek version of War (cf. Ag.Ap. 1.50) were also responsible for writing the majority of Ant. 15-19; in particular one heavily influenced by Sophocles wrote Ant. 15-16, while another steeped in Thucydides produced Ant. 17-19.275. W. employs the technique of stylometry (the statistical analysis of quantifiable stylistic features, such as an author's use of particles, conjunctions and prepositions to reexamine this ""assistant hypothesis."" His procedure involves (1) assembling a group of sample texts (two from the War, one from Ant., three from the Life) that may be confidently ascribed to Josephus; (2) identifying six function words used consistently within this ""Josephan block""; (3) testing the frequencies of these words against texts known to be non-Josephan (e.g., by Nicolaus of Damascus and Plutarch); (4) calculating the rate of usage for each test word in five 1,500-word samples from Ant. 15-19; and then (5) identifying significant deviations from the established statistical patterns. W. finds no Stylometric evidence for Thackeray's ""Sophoclean"" assistant (in Ant. 15-16) but does find evidence of a different hand in Ant. 17-19. The results cannot be explained by positing Josephus' mimicry of Thucydides." Keywords: History of Terms, language, style |