In this lucidly written book H. explores the moral-didactic strategies of ancient historiographers from the Classical and Hellenistic period. She argues that the moral instruction of the reader is one of the primary concerns of historical works and this does not diminish in any way their value as history. A useful typology of moralising techniques is provided, for example moralising introductions and conclusions to narrative episodes, moralising digressions, evaluative phrasing, moralising speeches, patterns and repetitions. The book is divided in two parts: Part 1 looks at the explicit moralising of Hellenistic historiography and offers a rich canvas against which the subtle moralising of Classical historiography is explored in Part 2. Each chapter helpfully follows the same structure, starting with an analysis of the prefaces and programmatic statements of the historical works examined and moving to discussions of moral techniques and moral messages; all these are compared with the moralising style of other Classical and Hellenistic historiographers. In each chapter the argument is carefully and consistently fleshed out with a number of examples.
Chapter 1 looks at Polybius’ Histories. Polybius provides a suitable starting point because his moralising lessons and strategies display almost the whole range employed across the genre. For Polybius the purpose of history is moral didacticism through examples. The characters in his Histories are meant as moral examples which guide readers on how to behave in real life and improve morally. Using an impressive array of techniques, Polybius draws explicit moral lessons which join the morally right with the practically advantageous. Such lessons include bearing with dignity good and bad fortune, the qualities of the good commander (courage and intelligence), the qualities of the good king (courage, intelligence, benefactions, non-violent nature, moderate living) and the qualities of the good man, which combine the qualities of a good commander and a good king.
Chapter 2 turns to Diodorus Siculus’ Bibliotheke. For Diodorus, very much like Polybius, history is both practical and moral. The past provides readers with useful and instructive exempla, and the ideas of history as memorial and of history as teacher are closely interlaced. Diodorus employs an exciting variety of moralising strategies, and his moral messages are quite similar to Polybius’, but the one lesson that stands out in the Bibliotheke is divine justice. H. argues that moralising in the Bibliotheke resembles the way Diodorus composes his narrative: he summarises, paraphrases and abbreviates his sources, but he does not write any new moralising passages. Nevertheless, Diodorus shows exceptional skill in doing so: he generally teases out from his sources moralising passages that suit his historical views and purpose, and his moral lessons are remarkably consistent throughout his work. Comparison with Polybius builds a picture of Diodorus as a self-conscious writer who has his own style and purpose as well as his own moral-didactic programme. It further leads H. to conclude that ‘in the first century b.c. moral didacticism was an ingrained part of the genre of historiography’ (p. 121) and also that ‘a canon of moral lessons were an established part of the genre of historiography by the first century bc’ (p. 121). This conclusion is investigated and buttressed further in Chapter 3, which looks at Hellenistic historians whose works only survive in fragments: Timaeus of Tauromenium, Duris of Samos, Phylarchus, Agatharchides of Cnidus, Posidonius of Apamea and Hieronymus of Cardia.
Chapter 4 focuses on Herodotus. ‘Moral didacticism forms the backbone of [Herodotus’] work’ (p. 192), who shares moralising techniques with the Hellenistic historiographers, but also makes use of strategies distinctive to him or uses familiar strategies in different ways. His favourite moralising technique, that is, moralising by means of patterning and repetition, is quite unique and does not occur in Polybius or Diodorus. His moral messages often overlap with those of his Hellenistic successors, but are highly complex. The dominant didactic theme of Herodotus’ Histories is the reversal of human fortune and consequently the uncertainty of human life, which also features prominently and more explicitly in Polybius and Diodorus, but Herodotus employs subtler and more implicit ways to convey this message.
In Chapter 5 H. convincingly argues that Thucydides moralises too, often using techniques similar to Diodorus and Polybius – he especially favours moralising digressions and speeches, but his moralising is largely implicit. A distinctive technique he often uses is presenting readers with a moral dilemma and encouraging them to make up their own mind; this is in sharp contrast with Diodorus and Polybius, who tell the reader explicitly how to evaluate actions and events. The abstract or generalised summary of events is a moralising technique unique to Thucydides, who in addition uses the macro-structure of his work to communicate the overall moral message that human fortune is uncertain. ‘This is moralising by means of the repetition of a recognised pattern, but the Thucydidean manifestation of the pattern is intertextual: it is based on a template found in Herodotus’ Histories’ (p. 201).
Xenophon's Hellenica is the subject of Chapter 6. H. shows that the Hellenica is both a historical work and a moral treatise which serves as a bridge between Classical and Hellenistic historiographical moralising. While still retaining implicit moral didacticism especially in his vignettes, Xenophon moralises more explicitly than Herodotus and Thucydides, and techniques popular with his predecessors (macro-level moralising and moralising by patterning) seem to be slowly fading away in his work. More importantly, the difference between Xenophon's work and those of his predecessors is the practical nature of the moral messages, which paves the way for the kind of moralising we encounter in Hellenistic historiography: lasting human happiness is elusive, but piety, courage, good leadership skills and friendship can secure commemoration and practical success.
Chapter 7 discusses fragmentary historians of the late Classical period (the Oxyrhynchus Historian, Ephorus of Cyme and Theopompus of Chios) to trace the development from Classical to Hellenistic moralising. H. suggests that the moralising of the Oxyrhynchus Historian and Ephorus follows that of their Classical predecessors. Theopompus, on the other hand, emerges as an innovator who made explicit moralising a distinctive feature of his work and thus prepared the ground for the moralising of Hellenistic historiography.
The book succeeds in showing a close connection between the subtle Classical moralising and the explicit Hellenistic moralising, and how the former gradually developed into the latter. The most interesting finding of the study is that, despite some differences in moralising techniques, the main moral lessons remained largely the same over the Classical and Hellenistic periods, with some small variations (instability of human fortune and need for moderation, praise of similar virtues and condemnation of similar vices). One thing that could have been pursued further is H.’s comparison of individual historians, which already yields rewarding and often surprising results. Readers will find much to stimulate their curiosity in this book and will enjoy reading it from beginning to end.
