Writing the Past

Module code: AH7703

How did historians in the ancient world make sense of the past? What function did historical writing fulfil in Greece and Rome and how did this change throughout antiquity? How did historians shape their works rhetorically, and make their accounts seem trustworthy? And how far have modern historical practices been shaped by these precedents?

This module will explore these topics by looking closely at five of the most important historical writers from antiquity – Herodotus, Xenophon, Sallust, Tacitus and Eusebius of Caesarea. All were unquestionably historians, but the works that they produced were radically different in form, function, and flavour, and in what they assumed history was for. Between them, these authors produced texts which have been central to modern understanding of the ancient world, from classical Athens to the triumph of Christianity, but our attention will not simply be on what these historians wrote, but on how they did so.

This module is intended to develop students’ critical analysis, and to build confidence in reading both ancient texts and the modern scholarship surrounding them.

Assessment for this module involves a recorded presentation discussing a contemporary (modern) historical event in the style of one of the 5 historians and an essay.