Byzantine Readings of Ancient Historians: Texts in Translation, with Introductions and Notes (Routledge Classical Translations) 1st Edition by Anthony Kaldellis (PDF)

Description

The survival of ancient Greek historiography is largely due to its preservation by Byzantine copyists and scholars. This process entailed selection, adaptation, and commentary, which shaped the corpus of Greek historiography in its transmission. By investigating those choices, Kaldellis enables a better understanding of the reception and survival of Greek historical writing.Byzantine Readings of Ancient Historians includes translations of texts written by Byzantines on specific ancient historians. Each translated text is accompanied by an introduction and notes to highlight the specific context and purpose of its composition. In order to present a rounded picture of the reception of Greek historiography in Byzantium, a wide range of genres have been considered, such as poems and epigrams, essays, personalized scholia, and commentaries. Byzantine Readings of Ancient Historians is therefore an important resource for scholars and students of ancient history.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “Kaldellis’s translations are a pleasure to read. The notes and introductions to the translations will surely be highly informative for readers without knowledge of Byzantine history… I appreciate how the book depicts the ancient and Byzantine approaches, demonstrating how each tradition can complement and ―even if it sounds paradoxical ― explain the other. Kaldellis’s book stands as yet another success in making Byzantine intellectual culture more accessible.” – Przemysław Marciniak, University of Silesia, Poland, in the Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2016″… elegant… an original collection of texts from the middle and the late Byzantine era … [this] anthology is an important and original one.”- Irene-Sophia Kiapidou, University of Patras, Greece, BYZANTINA SYMMEIKTA 2018 About the Author Anthony Kaldellis is Professor of Classics at the Ohio State University. His areas of expertise include Byzantine studies and Greek historiography.

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐Sometimes you get the impression that Byzantines took their copies of classical texts (Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, etc) and put them on a shelf and didn’t look at them for 1,000 years. Suddenly, the Renaissance starts and they discover the Greek texts and scholarship can begin!Anthony Kaldellis’s book ‘Byzantine Readings or Ancient Historians’ is a ground breaking work that tries to remedy the situation. He doesn’t just tell us what Byzantine scholars thought of the classical texts but actually provides us with translations of what they had to say. Hurray!There are 7 chapters, each on dealing with a classical text.1. Xenophon in Byzantium and the coded poem for Leon VI2. The Excerpta Historical of Konstantinos VII Porphryogennetos3. The scholia on the Zosimos manuscript4. Ioannes Tzetzes’ verse scholia on Thucydides5. Scholia on Diodorus of Sicily by Niketas Choniates and others6. Theodoros Metochites and the Greek Historians7. Ioannes Kanaboutzes’ Commentary on the Roman Antiquities of Dionysios of HalikarnassosMost of these were only known to a small group of specialised scholars. What Kaldellis has done is make these texts available to a wider readership to further discussion. Unfortunately, the hardback is rather expensive. I can only hope Routledge releases this in paperback.All that I have read on John Tzetzes indicates he was a petty and arrogant man. His scholia on Thucydides confirms this. His obsession with Attic word forms is not particularly interesting to me but it does show some level of philological expertise.The notes of Niketas Chionites on Diodorus of Sicily are hilarious. Check out what he says on pages 87, 88 and 91-92.The scholia on Zosimus mainly consist of outraged comments on this pagan author who was anti-Christian. Some of these were gems. The lament on the decline of learning in the Byzantine Empire (page 56) is an interesting insight into the thoughts of a contempory scholar. The outburst against pagan divination (page 59) is wonderful.Theodore Metochites essays deserve a wider audience. This book includes translations of three of them.The commentary of Kanaboutzes on Dionysius of Harlicanassos is the only actual commentary in the book. I found the fact that his commentary was tied in with the politics of Greek identity in the 15 century fascinating.Anthony Kaldellis has translated about a dozen Byzantine works into English, including Michael Psellus, Genesios, Procopius, Laonikos Chalkokondyles and Michael Attaleiates. Buy this book so we can encourage him to translate more!

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