Myth and History in the Historiography of Early Rome (Historiography of Rome and Its Empire, 17)

This volume studies the marvellous stories of early Rome transmitted by ancient historians, to explore the porous boundaries and the hybrid borrowings between myth, history and historiography. Contents Contents 6 Historiography of Rome and Its Empire Series 8 Acknowledgements 9 Note on Contributors 10 Chapter 1 Introduction: The Historiography of Myth in Historiography 14 Chapter 2 The Epiphanies of the Dioscuri: Myth or History? 26 Chapter 3 Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Theopompus, and the Historical Marvel: The Rhetoric of Myth and the Myth of Rhetoric 47 Chapter 4 Augustan Historiography on the Mythical Aborigines: Ideology and Erudition in Dionysius, Trogus, and Timagenes 77 Chapter 5 The Methodology of Dionysius of Halicarnassus in Book 1 of the Roman Antiquities 99 Chapter 6 Privatus or tribunus celerum? The Myth of Lucius Brutus and the Political Role of Private Individuals 135 Chapter 7 Political Violence between Myth and History: The Examples of Accius and Cicero 153 Chapter 8 The Decemvirate and the Second Secession of the Plebs (451–449 BCE): A Historiographical fabula 168 Chapter 9 Men, Gods and Places in Early Rome: Myths in History in the First Century BCE 198 Chapter 10 The Precise Dating of Events in Dionysius’ Narrative of Rome’s Kings 219 Chapter 11 Sculpting History into Myth: Tarpeia and Foreign Conquest 225 Index 256 "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"-- Provided by publisher