Problems in Greek historyMahaffy, J. P. (John Pentland)
History
Problems in Greek history
Mahaffy, J. P. (John Pentland)
Greece -- Historiography; Greece -- History
Even the language of Thucydides in these chapters shows phrases which we
recognize in the fragments of Antiochus cited by Strabo. The prominence
of Syracuse, the city of Antiochus, and the mention of the constitutions
of the new cities, are also features pointing to the work of Antiochus.
In his special article Busolt has shown with great acuteness that all
the later authorities, cited by some in support of Thucydides' data,
really rest upon him or upon Antiochus[64:2]. What was the character of
this author? He was an early contemporary of Herodotus, and is never
cited by the ancients as a specimen of critical acumen, but rather as
possessing special knowledge on an outlying part of the Greek world. We
have, moreover, his opening words quoted by Dionysius of
Halicarnassus[65:1], which are most important in the present connection:
[Greek: Antiochos Xenophaneos tade synegrapse peri Italiês ek tôn
archaiôn logôn ta pistotata kai saphestata]. In other words he used oral
tradition for his facts, and this he also did in his account of early
Sicily[65:2]. He was, at best, one of the most serious, if you please,
of the _logopoioi_, or chroniclers, who are always being contrasted with
critical historians such as Thucydides. Such being the state of the
facts, we are compelled to accept as our only authority for the early
traditions concerning Sicily this solitary chronicler, who seems to have
had no difficulty in fixing dates centuries before the first immigration
of the Greeks. In a loose thinker of this kind, patriotism may be fairly
assigned as a strong moving cause in determining his facts and dates.
Indeed, when Archias is said by this Antiochus to have aided at the
founding of Croton, Grote and Holm are quite ready to set it down to his
desire to magnify Syracuse. When Ephorus of Kyme sets down the Italian
colony of his city (Cumæ) at 1050 B.C., all critical historians reject
this date upon the same ground. If this criticism be indeed valid, are
we only to use it when we choose, or to apply it generally? Busolt shows
(in his article) that the actual year of the founding of Syracuse (and
hence of the other Sicilian colonies) cannot be regarded as certain.
Surely he and his brother critics stop short illogically, and refrain
from pushing their doubts as far as they are bound to do. To me not only
the exact year, but the exact generation--it is by generations and round
numbers that Antiochus counted--is quite uncertain; and we are thrown
back on arguments from general probability such as those which I have
indicated.
[Sidenote: though supported by Thucydides,]
[Sidenote: who is not omniscient.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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