6 - History and Rhetoric

Summary

Introduction

Is there something different about how history was written in the years after the death of Alexander up to the first century? What similarities or continuities characterise writers of history in the Hellenistic era compared with their predecessors? How does history writing relate to the development of other aspects of literary and intellectual culture - philosophy, oratory, literature, and education - in general? How does history writing fit in its own political and historical environment when the territorial kingdoms that were established after the reign of Alexander and that characterise the Hellenistic era gradually succumb to the power of the Roman empire? This chapter attempts to answer these questions.

The chapter’s title, history and rhetoric, offers a particular slant to a study of history writing in the Hellenistic period. For rhetoric influenced not only writers of history but also makers of history. History and rhetoric offer two interconnected approaches to the Hellenistic world and, indeed, other periods of history. On the one hand, one could write about the role of rhetoric in history or, in the context of this book, how Hellenistic kings or politicians used oratory, for example. Or how Greek cities employed rhetorical skills in their relations with the kings and other Greek poleis and later Rome, in particular the Senate, and the Romans, in particular Roman magistrates, generals, and individuals operating in the eastern Mediterranean.