Arrian at the Caspian Gates
A Study in Methodology
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 9364217 |
|---|---|
| Authors | A B Bosworth (The University of Western Australia, corresponding author) |
| Year | 1983 |
| Volume | 33 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 265-276 |
| Publication date | 1983-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Classical Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0009-8388 • E-ISSN: 1471-6844 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0009838800034455 |
| OpenAlex | W2071935024 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 5 |
| References cited | 9 |
In a recent article Professor Brunt has made an eloquent plea for greater rigour in handling the remains of non-extant authors. When the original is lost and we depend I upon quotation, paraphrase or mere citation by later authorities, we must first establish the reliability of the source which supplies the fragment. There is obviously a world of difference between the long verbal quotations in Athenaeus and the disjointed epitomes provided by the periochae of Livy. As a general rule, the fuller and more explicit the reproduction in the secondary source, the more confident we can be that it approximates to the original. Our doubts should increase as the references become less precise and resort to paraphrase rather than direct quotation. The wider context is also important. One always needs to know why the secondary author is making his citation and what interest he has in a strictly literal reproduction. These principles are unexceptionable, but they are difficult to maintain in practice. One rarely has the opportunity to make a sustained experiment, checking an author's techniques' of quotation and digest against sources which are now extant. As a result the historian all too often feels constrained to squeeze the last drop of meaning out of testimonia which are by their very nature imprecise. The standard work, Jacoby's Fragmente der griechischen Historiker , is a pitfall for the unwary. It presents all citations, whether full quotations or the vaguest of references, on the same status as ‘fragments’; and the context is necessarily reduced to the barest minimum, so that the reader's attention is focussed directly upon the lost original and diverted from the machinery of transmission
Argument (complex analysis · Art · Citation · Context (archaeology · Epistemology · Extant taxon · Fallacy · Library science · Linguistics · Literature · Meaning (existential · Paraphrase · Plea · Political science · Rigour · Byzantine Studies and History · Classical Antiquity Studies · Computer Science · Historical, Religious, and Philosophical Studies · History · Law · Philosophy
Nebuchadnezzar and Alexander in the Excerpta Latina Barbari
Apollo in Arms
Klauzura północno-wschodniej Azji na mapach średniowiecznych i wczesnonowożytnych
Interactions entre l’Anatolie et le royaume de Grande Arménie aux I er et II e siècles apr. J.-C
Lucian, Fronto, and the Absence of Contemporary Historiography under the Antonines
| Unique citing works | 5 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,31 |
| Citation span | 2010 - 2021 (12) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |