Languages and language use in classical Greek historiography and the Alexander tradition
This thesis examines six ancient historians and one biographer who wrote about Greek contact with the Persian Empire. It explores how these writers explicitly discuss the Greek language in its varying dialects (Chapter One), minor bilingual figures like interpreters and envoys (Chapter Two), and major bilingual individuals who adopted foreign tongues in their own interest (Chapter Three). Previous work in this area has largely been historical in focus, seeking the 'reality' behind the text whilst underappreciating any literary aims of the historians. Some scholarship has attempted to move beyond this, at least for certain ancient historians (e.g. Herodotus), but no single study yet exists examining this phenomenon in Greek historiography more broadly, incorporating works at the permeable frontiers of and across the genre to arrive at a more integrated description and analysis. The three thematic chapters are each divided into two sections: one on classical Greek historiography (Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon's Anabasis); the other on the main surviving historians and biographers of Alexander (Diodorus, Curtius Rufus, Plutarch, Arrian - all from the Roman period). Throughout, I place language in its context
James, Dylan
Ancient Greek history ; Ancient Greek literature ; Alexander the Great ; Classical Greek historiography ; Multilingualism
Languages and language use in classical Greek historiography and the Alexander tradition. This thesis examines six ancient historians and one biographer who wrote about Greek contact with the Persian Empire. It explores how these writers explicitly discuss the Greek language in its varying dialects (Chapter One), minor bilingual figures like interpreters and envoys (Chapter Two), and major bilingual individuals who adopted foreign tongues in their own interest (Chapter Three). Previous work in this area has largely been historical in focus, seeking the 'reality' behind the text whilst underappreciating any literary aims of the historians. Some scholarship has attempted to move beyond this, at least for certain ancient historians (e.g. Herodotus), but no single study yet exists examining this phenomenon in Greek historiography more broadly, incorporating works at the permeable frontiers of and across the genre to arrive at a more integrated description and analysis. The three thematic chapters are each divided into two sections: one on classical Greek historiography (Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon's Anabasis); the other on the main surviving historians and biographers of Alexander (Diodorus, Curtius Rufus, Plutarch, Arrian - all from the Roman period). Throughout, I place language in its context
languages language_use classical_greek historiography alexander tradition examines ancient historian biographer write greek contact persian empire explore writer explicitly discuss greek language vary dialect minor bilingual figure like interpreter two_major bilingual individual adopt foreign tongue interest previous_work area largely historical focus seek reality behind text whilst literary aim historian scholarship attempt_move beyond least certain ancient historian herodotus single study yet exist examine phenomenon greek historiography broadly incorporate work permeable frontier across genre arrive integrate description analysis thematic divide_two section_one classical_greek historiography herodotus thucydides xenophon main surviving historian biographer alexander diodorus plutarch roman period throughout place language context