Myth and History in the Historiography of Early Rome

Description

The histories of early Rome written in antiquity by the likes of Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus include many sensational stories, from the she-wolf suckling the twins to the miraculous conception of Servius Tullius and the epiphany of the Dioscuri at Lake Regillus. Even the more sober parts of the narrative are of dubious historicity, and certainly include a good deal of rhetorical invention, aetiologies and folktales. The essays composing this volume attempt to analyse these stories to explore the porous boundaries and the hybrid borrowings between myth, history and historiography, and the limits of historical knowledge. Contents Historiography of Rome and Its Empire Series Acknowledgements Note on Contributors Chapter 1 Introduction: The Historiography of Myth in Historiography Chapter 2 The Epiphanies of the Dioscuri: Myth or History? Chapter 3 Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Theopompus, and the Historical Marvel: The Rhetoric of Myth and the Myth of Rhetoric Chapter 4 Augustan Historiography on the Mythical Aborigines: Ideology and Erudition in Dionysius, Trogus, and Timagenes Chapter 5 The Methodology of Dionysius of Halicarnassus in Book 1 of the Roman Antiquities Chapter 6 Privatus or tribunus celerum? The Myth of Lucius Brutus and the Political Role of Private Individuals Chapter 7 Political Violence between Myth and History: The Examples of Accius and Cicero Chapter 8 The Decemvirate and the Second Secession of the Plebs (451–449 BCE): A Historiographical fabula Chapter 9 Men, Gods and Places in Early Rome: Myths in History in the First Century BCE Chapter 10 The Precise Dating of Events in Dionysius’ Narrative of Rome’s Kings Chapter 11 Sculpting History into Myth: Tarpeia and Foreign Conquest Index