By the fifteen century Europe began to experience changes of a great magnitude. This three great institutions of the west-Holy Roman Empire, the Papacy and feudalism-drift towards decay. The eastern Roman Empire collapsed and Constantinople fell to the Turks. The classical scholars fled to the western countries, taught the literature of ancient Greece and Rome in their new homelands and created a new interest in classical learning. The result was…
Category: Teaching -learning
Medieval Historiography: Religious
During the medieval period, the Christian clerics, monks and scholars in Europe wrote most of the historical literature. Guided by a conviction that Christianity was the true religion, they looked upon the church as the dominant factor in all human activity. While many of them wrote on the history of the church, others recorded the events of their own times or prepared copies of rare manuscripts of the classical works…
Q. Sketch the Character of Roman Historiography?
The Romam contribution to historical writing was considerable but not only as remarkable as the Greek’s. Rome had no glorious past, for it had little worthy of record in the humble story of its existence as a small group of villages. For long it struggle against the states of Litium until it gained recognition as a principal city. The registers of annual events prepared by the religious heads and the…
Cornelius Tactius Roman historian
Born around 54 CE, Tacitus studied law, served as a lawyer, held high positions in administration and wrote historical works. Tacitus began his literary career with his writing The Life of Agricola, his governor father-in-law. A historical biography, The Life of Agricola gives an account of the Roman wars in Britain, the condition of the Britons under the Roman rule and the administration of Agricola. More than of historical interest,…
Titus Livy (59 BCE-17 ce)
Livy, considered as the nationalist historian of Rome, was born at Padua and was a contemporary of Emperor Augustus Caesar. Wealthy and learned, he developed an aversion for public career and decided to seek a scholastic life at the imperial city. The glorious ascendancy of Rome in the great struggle against the formidable powers of Europe exercised an abiding influence upon Livy. Livy cherished an ambition to preserve the glory…
Roman Historians: Assess the contribution of Romans to the development of Historiography?
The Roman contribution to historical writing was considerable but not as remarkable as Greek. The Rome had no glorious past, for it had little worth in term of record in the humble story of its existence as a small group of villages. For long it struggled against the states of Latium until it gained recognition as the principal city. It was only after it began to conquer the Mediterranean region…
Explain the character of Greek Historiography?
Until the fifth century BCE the Greek historical interest remained centred on the city-state of Greece. The geographical area was political unit and what happened within state engaged the thinking of historians. As foreigners like Macedonians and Persian were considered as enemies, their doing did not figure in their writing. But this attitude outmoded, when the Greek forces and Greek ideas crossed the geographical frontiers and conquered alien lands. Not…
Thucydides
Apart from Herodotus, the Greek historiography owes a lot to Thucydides who made himself a noted historian of ancient Greece through his book History of the Peloponnesian war. The theme he selected from his writing was the struggle between two leagues of city-states-one led by Athens and the other Sparta- the Peloponnesian war. He explored all accessible sources for collection of materials so as to render his works monumental. As…
Herodotus
Herodotus, considered the ‘Father of History’, was born at Helicarnassus, Darian settlement in Asia minor, about 480 BCE. The period witnessed the ascendancy of Athens in Greece. Young Herodotus studies the poetry of the Greeks, especially the epics of Homer and learned the art of prose writing from works of Hecataeus. His curiosity to learn more about the world led him to long travel to Thrace, Scythia, Egypt and Babylon.…
Homer
Homer is one of the most popular of the early chronicles who wrote Iliad and Odyssey, narrate the splendor of Greece. Dionysius wrote a history of Persia in 5 books. Charon, a contemporary of Dionysius, was author of two important works-a History of Greece and a history of Persia. However, it was Hacataeus who laid the foundation of Greek historical writing. A witness to the Persian invasion of Greece, diplomat,…