historiography, Hellenistic
historiography, HellenisticIn an age that witnessed the conquests by Alexander the Great and his Successors and then the Roman succession to virtually all that had been theirs, Greeks substantially expanded history-writing to include new themes, styles, and genres. In the 1st cent. bc Dionysius of Halicarnassus claimed that the day was not long enough for him to recite the names of all the historians (De compositione verborum 4. 30). The increase in history-writing was due to the necessity to explain new events, lands, and peoples. It was nurtured by the patronage of Hellenistic monarchs and Roman aristocrats and by the growth of libraries and centres of scholarship, most notably in Alexandria and Pergamum, and finally in Rome.
Most of that rich and diverse writing is lost. Substantial parts of Polybius,...
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