Ancient Historians

A Student Handbook

Susan Sorek

• Publisher: Continuum
• Year: 2012
• ISBN:
  9781441157911
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Ancient History
• Index: History

The ancient historians were not always objective or accurate, and their intentions for writing were very different from those of modern historians. This introductory guide helps to unravel some of the difficulties involved in dealing with ancient source material, placing the work of ancient historians in its political, social and historical context for the contemporary reader. The chapters survey all of the major historians whose works are encountered most often by students during their period of study, including Herodotus, Thucydides, Sallust and Livy, as well as more minor Greek and Roman historians. Further chapters assess works of biography and literature as historical source material. Alexander the Great, the subject of multiple works of history, biography and fiction, provides an enlightening case study in ancient historiography. Timelines of major historical events will place the writers within their historical context, and each chapter includes a full bibliography for ease of reference.

Chapter One

Greece Third – Fifth Centuries bce

The Classical period also known as the Golden Age of Greece saw the rise of two city states, Athens and Sparta, and these two rival states bought the ancient world to its height in art, culture and historiography. Nevertheless it was the same two states whose thirst for power and territory brought about the Peloponnesian wars which lasted 30 years and left both Athens and Sparta shadows of their former glorious selves.

The Persian Wars (499 – 493 bce)

The Persian wars were a defining moment in Greek history. The Athenians, who came to dominate Greece both culturally and politically during the fifth and part of the fourth century BCE, regarded the wars as their greatest achievement. The wars started inauspiciously when in 546 BCE the Persians conquered the Greek city state of Lydia (Asia Minor), all the states subject to the Lydians now came under the close control of the Persians, and they appointed individuals to rule the states as tyrants. They also enforced citizens to serve in the Persian army and pay heavy taxes.

Aristagoras, the tyrant of Miletus began a democratic rebellion in 499 BCE and went to the Greek mainland for support. First he approached Sparta but they rejected his idea, so he turned to the Athenians who promised him 20 ships. In 498 BCE the Athenians conquered Sardis the capital of Lydia and the Greek cities now joined in the revolt. However, the Athenians lost interest in the revolt and left Asia Minor and by 495 BCE the Persians, under their king Darius I (521–486 BCE), restored control over the rebellious Greek cities.

The Persian king decided that Athens should be punished for the role it had played in the revolt and destruction of Sardis. So, in 490 BCE the Persians launched an expedition against Athens, only to be met on the field of battle by Miltiades, one of their former soldiers who had defected to Athens after angering the Persian king. The two armies met at Marathon (490 BCE), and this is perhaps the most important battle in all Greek history, for had the Athenians lost. all Greece would have come under Persian control, and Western civilization, as we know it, would not have existed. The success of the Athenians gave them the grandiose notion that they were the centre of Greek culture and power and acted as a spur for much of their cultural achievements.

The Persians, however, still controlled almost the entire ancient world – Asia Minor, Lydia, Judah, Mesopotamia and Egypt – so in their eyes Marathon was seemingly of little significance in the scheme of things. It was not until the reign of Darius’ son, Xerxes (486–465 BCE) that the Athenians once more came to the attention of the Persians. In 481 BCE Xerxes gathered together an army of approximately 50,000 men and a navy of 600 ships determined that the whole of Greece would be conquered. However, the Athenians were not unprepared, for the politician Themistocles had been convinced that the Persians would return at some point to exact revenge. He managed to convince the Athenians of the Persian intent. He proposed that they used the new found wealth from the gold mines at Laurion to prepare for war. So while Persia delayed through the 480s, Athens began building its own war fleet and by 481 BCE Athens had a navy of 200 ships. The first sea battle with the Persian fleet took place at Artemisium but the outcome was inconclusive. On land the Greeks were undecided on the best way to fight the Persians. Their first defence at Tempe was abandoned and the plan was to fall back as far as the Peloponnese and make their stand there. The Spartan king Leonidas was dispatched with 300 men to delay the Persians at the narrow pass at Thermopylae, where they held out for three days before finally being betrayed and slaughtered. The epitaph of the heroic Spartans was written by the poet Simonides and carved into the stone walls of the pass:

Tell them in Lacedaemon passerby, that here obedient to their words we lie.

Now unimpeded, the Persian army continued its march toward Athens. The Greek fleet was sent to lure the Persian fleet into the straits between Attica and the island of Salamis, where their smaller and more manoeuvrable ships had an advantage. This was a brilliant strategy and resulted in the loss of 200 Persian vessels. The Persian army now retreated north to sit it out through the winter with the idea of returning the following summer to sack Athens. The Greeks now numbered 100,000 men and were led by the Spartan general Pausanias, reinforced by other Greek city states that now had faith a Greek victory was possible. They defeated the Persians at Plataea while the Greek navy destroyed the Persian fleet at Mykale off the coast of Asia Minor. The Persian Wars were finally over.

In 478 BCE the Delian League was formed by Athens and its allies on the island of Delos, the island sacred to Apollo. Members were required to swear an oath, (some were actually forced to join by threats); they then began to clear the land of the last remaining Persians and free the seas of piracy. Athens, however, soon began to dominate the other city states, and proceeded to set about conquering all Greece with exception of Sparta and its allies. This period was referred to by the historian Thucydides as the Pentecontaetia when Athens increasingly became recognized as an Athenian Empire. Under the brilliant statesman Pericles, the increase in Athenian power meant that some of the formerly independent allies were reduced to the status of tribute paying subjects, and this tribute was used to support a powerful fleet, and after the middle of the century, to fund massive building works in Athens.

Naturally this caused a great deal of friction between Athens and the Peloponnesian states, especially with Sparta. Sparta attempted without success to prevent the reconstruction of the Athenian walls, without which Athens was completely undefended against land attack, and more importantly subject to Spartan control. In 465 BCE conflict erupted again when a helot revolt broke out in Sparta. The Spartans summoned the help of their allies including Athens who sent a force of 4,000 hoplites. However, upon their arrival they were dismissed by Sparta while the other allies were allowed to remain. Athens was greatly offended by this but it is possible that Sparta was afraid that the Athenian contingent would join forces with the helots, such was the mistrust of Athenian motives. The helots were finally forced to surrender and allowed to leave the country; Athens settled them in the strategic city of Naupactus on the Corinthian gulf.

The First Peloponnesian War

In 459 BCE war broke out between Megara and Corinth both allies of Sparta, and Athens took advantage of the situation by concluding an alliance with Megara, which then gave the Athenians a foothold on the Corinthian isthmus. This incident started a 15-year conflict (known as the First Peloponnesian War) which saw Athens intermittently at war with Sparta, Corinth, Aegina and other states. During this time Athens controlled not only Megara but also Boeotia; however, at the end in face of a massive Spartan invasion of Attica, the Athenians ceded the lands they had won on the Greek mainland. Athens and Sparta agreed to recognize each other’s right to control their respective alliance systems and the war was officially ended by the Thirty Years Peace which was signed in the winter of 446/5 BCE.

However, the peace was soon to be put under strain when Athens’ powerful ally Samos rebelled from its alliance with Athens in 440 BCE. The rebels gained the support of a Persian satrap, and Athens faced the possibility of revolts throughout the empire. The Spartans called a congress of their allies to discuss the possibility of war with Athens; Corinth, the most powerful of Sparta’s allies was opposed to war and so the congress voted against such action. Shortly afterwards the Athenians crushed the revolt and peace was maintained.

There were several other sources of provocation to the Peace. The first involved Athens and Corinth. After suffering a defeat by their colony of Corcyra, Corinth began to build an allied naval force. Corcyra immediately sought an alliance with Athens, which after debate and input from both Corcyra and Corinth, decided to swear a defensive alliance with Corcyra. Athenian ships played a decisive role at the Battle of Sybota, preventing the Corinthian fleet from capturing Corcyra. The Athenians were not allowed to directly attack Corinth in order to uphold the Thirty Years Peace but the presence of their warships was enough to dissuade Corinth from exploiting their victory.

Following this incident Athens instructed Potidaea, a tributary ally of Athens but a colony of Corinth, to tear down its walls, send hostages to Athens and dismiss Corinthian magistrates from office. The Corinthians were enraged by this and encouraged Potidaea to revolt, while at the same time was unofficially bringing armed men into the city to help defend it. This was a direct violation of the Thirty Years Peace which had expressly stipulated that the Delian League and the Peloponnesian League would respect each other’s autonomy.

A further problem occurred when Athens issued a decree, known as the Megarian decree, imposing trade sanctions on Megarian citizens. This factor is ignored by Thucydides in his account of the war, but many modern historians believe it was a major contribution to bringing about the war. In 432 BCE Sparta summoned members of the Peloponnesian League to make their complaints to the Spartan assembly. The Athenians warned them of the dangers of opposing a nation that had had many military successes, notably the defeat of the Persians. Undeterred by this the Spartans voted to declare that the Athenians had broken the Peace, which meant a declaration of war.

The ‘Archidamian War’

The Spartan strategy, under its king Arcidamus II (after whom the first war is known), was to invade the land surrounding Athens. However, Athens was able to maintain access to the sea so did not suffer unduly. The Spartans occupied Attica for only three weeks at a time, because soldiers were expected to return home to participate in the harvest and the helots (slaves) needed to be kept under control and so could not be left unsupervised. The Athenian strategy was initially guided by Pericles who advised the Athenians to rely upon their fleet. The fleet went on the offensive winning a victory at Naupactus. In 430 bce an outbreak of plague hit Athens and ravaged the densely packed city; in the long run it was a significant cause of its final defeat. The plague killed over 30,000 citizens, sailors and soldiers and even Pericles succumbed to the illness. Obviously this reduced the manpower of Athens and foreign mercenaries refused to join the plague-ridden city. Even Spartan troops refused to risk contact with the city, so the invasion was abandoned.

Following the death of Pericles the Athenians adopted a more aggressive policy under their new general Demosthenes and managed to achieve some success with their naval raids on the Peloponnese. The Athenians also began fortifying posts around the Peloponnese, one of which was on the tiny island of Sphacteria, where the course of the first war changed in Athens’ favour. Demosthenes outmanoeuvred the Spartans in the Battle of Pylos in 425 BCE and trapped a group of Spartan soldiers on Sphacteria. Demosthenes was unable to finish off the Spartans and it was left to the inexperienced Cleon to complete the victory by capturing between 300–400 Spartan hoplites giving the Athenians a bargaining chip.

The Spartan general Brasidas retaliated by marching to Amphipolis, which controlled several silver mines that supplied the Athenian war fund. Thucydides was dispatched with a force but he arrived too late. Thucydides was exiled for this, and his conversations with both sides of the war inspired his later writing. Both Brasidas and Cleon were killed, and eventually both sides signed a truce – the Peace of Nicias – which lasted for approximately six years. There was constant skirmishing during this time and with the help of the Athenians the Argives forged a coalition of democratic states within the Peloponnese. Spartan attempts to break the coalition failed and the Athenians under the leadership of Alcibiades moved on Tegea, near Sparta.

The Battle of Matinea was the largest land battle fought within Greece during the Peloponnesian war. The Spartan forces were greatly outnumbered and the allied forces gained considerable success but failed to capitalize on them, which allowed the Spartan elite forces to defeat them. The Spartans achieved complete victory, and with the defeat of the coalition Sparta pulled back from the brink of disaster and retained complete hegemony throughout the Peloponnese.

The seventeenth year of the war saw Athens come to the aid of one of their distant allies in Sicily who was under attack from Syracuse. The Athenians had visions of conquering all Sicily and so acquiring a huge amount of resources. Alcibiades was accused of desecrating statues (the hermai) and charged with religious crimes. Alcibiades asked to be brought to trial before the expedition was sent, but he was allowed to go; however, as soon as he reached Sicily he was recalled to stand trial. Fearing he would be found guilty he defected to Sparta where he informed the Spartans of the Athenian plans.

The Athenian force consisted of over 100 ships and 5,000 infantry. Cavalry was limited to 30 horses which proved no match for the elite Syracusan cavalry. Nicias was in charge of the Athenian forces and his procrastination gave Syracuse the opportunity to call on Sparta for aid. Sparta sent their general Gylippus to Sicily with reinforcements; he took command and in a series of battles defeated the Athenian forces. Nicias and Demosthenes marched their remaining forces inland in search of friendly allies, but the Syracusan cavalry tracked them down and mercilessly slaughtered or enslaved all that remained of the mighty Athenian fleet.

The Second Peloponnesian War

The Spartans were now ready to deal with the Athenians on their own soil. Alcibiades fortified Decelea near Athens and prevented them for making use of their land. The fortification of Decelea also meant that all supplies were now only available by sea which meant increased expense for the Athenians. Perhaps more devastating was the disruption of the nearby silver mines when as many as 20,000 Athenian slaves were freed by the Spartan hoplites.

Following the defeat of the Athenians in Sicily it was believed that the end of the Athenian Empire was at hand. Her treasury was almost empty, her docks depleted, and her young men either dead or imprisoned. Sparta encouraged the revolt of Athens’ other allies while the Syracusans sent their fleet to the Peloponnesians, and the Persians decided to support the Spartans with money and ships. Revolt and factional strife also threatened in Athens. However, the Athenians managed to survive. At the start of the war Athens had put some money aside and also 100 ships that were to be used as a last resort. These ships were released and served as the core of the Athenian fleet for the rest of the war.

An oligarchical revolution occurred in Athens in which a group of 400 seized power. In 411 BCE an Athenian f...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title
• Contents
• Preface
• Timelines – Greek History and Roman History
• Introduction
• 1 Greece Third–Fifth Centuries BCE
• 2 Herodotus
• 3 Thucydides
• 4 Xenophon
• 5 Diodorus Siculus
• 6 Other Early Greek Historians: Hecataeus of Abdera, Hellanicus of Lesbos, Ctesias of Cnidus, Ephorus of Syme, Theopompus of Chios, Ptolemy I Soter, Hieronymus of Cardia, Timeaus, Apollodorus, Posidonius
• 7 The Rise of Rome
• 8 Roman Historiography
• 9 Quintus Ennius
• 10 Cato the Elder
• 11 Polybius
• 12 From Republic to Empire
• 13 Gaius Julius Caesar
• 14 Sallust
• 15 Livy
• 16 Augustus
• 17 Josephus
• 18 Tacitus
• 19 Dio Cassius
• 20 Arrian
• 21 Men of Letters: Cicero and Pliny the Younger
• 22 The Biographers: Plutarch and Suetonius
• 23 The Later Roman Empire
• 24 Ammianus Marcellinus
• 25 Tertullian
• 26 Eusebius
• 27 Other Roman and Early Christian works: Gnaeus Naevius, Quintus Fabius Pictor, Cornelius Nepos, Quintus Curtius Rufus, Velleius Paterculus, Nicolaus of Damascus, Alexander Polyhistor, Pliny the Elder, Appian, Herodian, Historia Augusta, Marcus Terentius Varro, Gaius Asinius Pollio, Dio Chrysostom, Marcus Junianus Justinus, Sextus Julius Africanus, Theodoret, Zosimus, Sozomen
• 28 Alexander the Great: A Case Study
• 29 Concluding Remarks
• Bibliography
• Index