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Durham E-Theses Durham E-Theses Philochoros and the tradition of local historical writing at Athens : genre, ideology and methodology in the reconstruction and literary presentation of attic history Joyce, Christopher J. How to cite: Joyce, Christopher J. (2002) Philochoros and the tradition of local historical writing at Athens : genre, ideology and methodology in the reconstruction and literary presentation of attic history, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/1003/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 0 i ochoros and the Tradition of Local Historical Writing at Athens: Genre, Ideology and Methodology in the Re- construction and Literary Presentation of Attic History. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be publishedwithout his prior written consentand information deriv6d from it should be acknowledged. NOV2002 A thesis submitted for the degree of Ph.D. by ChristoPher J. Joyce. For my mother, in loving memory of myfather. Statement of Declaration. I hereby declare that this thesishas not been subn-ýttedfor higher degreeat this or at any other university. Table of Contents Abstract. a Acknowledgements. m Introduction. 1-6 Chapter 1. Philochoros and the Atthis. 7-20 1.1. Literary Output andTransmission. 7-9 1.2. Life and Dates. 9-12 1.3. The Atthis: Length, Content,Form and Structure. 12-20 a Chapter 11. Atthidography: Re-derining a Genre. 21-46 2.1. The State of the Question: Wilarnowitz, Jacoby and Theoretical Models. 22-25 2.2. Atthis as a Literary Concept: The Evidence of Dionysios. 26-28 2.3. The Atthis of Hellanikos and the Priority of Genealogy in Early 28-40 Atthidography. 2.4. The Atthides of the Fourth Century: Antiquarianism versus Chronicle. 40-45 0 Chapter 111. Local ffistoriography: Influence and Tendenz. 46-117 3.1. The Stateof the Question:Jacoby and the Purposeof Local Historiography. 52-57 3.2. The Refinementsof Ruschenbusch:Historiography, Oratory and Theory. 57-60 3.3. Solon and Kleisthenesin Fifth-Century Historiography:Herodotos and 61-74 Hellanikos. 3.4. Solon and Kleisthenesin Fourth-Century Perception(1): The Political Arena. 75-86 3.5. Solon and Kleisthenesin Fourth-Century Perception(11): The Literary Arena. 86-96 3.6. The Political Dimensionsof Atthidography (I): Kleidemosand Androtion. 96-106 3.7. The Political Dimensionsof Atthidography (Il): The Atthis of Philochoros. 106-117 0 Chapter IV. Sourcesand Methods. 118-175 4.1. The Stateof the Question:Jacoby and the Sourcesof Local Historical Writing. 121-140 4.2. Philochorosand the "Mythical" Period: Literary Tradition and Innovation. 141-151 4.3. Philochorosand the historical period: The Use of Literature and Documents. 152-175 0 Conclusion. 176-180 m Appendices. 181-206. Abstract The purposeof this thesis is to re-evaluatewith special referenceto the Attic History of the third-century historian Philochorosthe nature of local historical writing at Athens, its sources,methodology and defining features. Attic historiography(or "Atthidography" as it is more commonly known) began in the late fifth century B.C. with a non-Athenian called Hellanikos and cuhninatedwith Philochoros in the third. Current consensusholds that thesewriters worked within a rigidly defined genrewhose most salient hallmark was the schernatisationof Athenian history around a list of annualarchons and that the aim of each successivewriter was to presenthistory with a unique political slant. This thesis challengesconventional wisdom on three scores. First, it arguesthat, while there can be little doubt that Philochorosorganised his Attic History in the shapeof a chronicle, the historical treatisesof his literary predecessorsadopted different traits and in few instances exhibit an annalistic structure;this observation discouragesthe notion that Philochoros modelled his own treatiseon earlier works of the sametitle or drew his historical material from those works. Second,it conteststhe idea that local historical writing was a function of a protractedideological polen-ýcat Athens: starting with the History of Herodotosand finishing with Philochoros,it arguesthat literary figures in most observablecases sought not to voice one side of public debateover given historical themesbut insteadsought to subvert public perceptionin its entirety. Third, it contendsthat Philochoros was able to construct an historical narrative largely, if not principally, from documentaryevidence and that his debt to an earlier tradition of oral narrative was minimal. This thesisintends to subvert a tradition of scholarly thinking originating with F.Jacoby and to encouragere- considerationof entrencheddoctrines and dogmas. Introduction This is a study of the Hellenistic historian Philochoros and his place within a tradition of local historical writing at Athens. Though the title might imply a narrow focus upon Philochoros and the fragments of his writings, the more generalaim of the study is to re-evaluate an influential theory formulated half a century ago by the German scholar,F. Jacoby, concerning the origins of Attic historiography and the sourcesfrom which writers of the fourth and third centuries re-constructedlocal Athenian history. Jacoby's theory, which will be expounded in greater detail in Chapter H, has won wide acceptancesince its publication in 1949, and, while some scholarsnow entertain scepticismin certain details, no attempt has been madeto re-evaluateit ab integro. The theory may be summarised briefly. Local historical writing at Athens began in the fifth century B. C. with the researchesof Hellanikos of Lesbos, whose Attic History (or Atthis) took the literary form of a chronicle and drew its fundamental historical material from oral informants. SubsequentAttic historians down to the time of Philochoros in the third century modelled their narratives on this treatise, adopting an annalisticýrubric and incorporating into their works a tradition of historical subject matter derived from Hellanikos. The aim of each chronicler was to narrate a received tradition of historical material from a distinct ideological perspective: while some characterised the early constitution as oligarchic in structure, others laid emphasis upon its democratic features. Attic chronicle as a genre of writing resembledpolitical pamphleteering in its aims and objectives, and Philochoros stood at the end of a literary tradition whose generic parameterswere narrowly circumscribed and whose intrinsic purposewas to narrate history in line with a party political interest. The model, as outlined above, has three basic implications. First, it implies that Philochoros dependedfor his knowledge of early Athens upon the researchesof a fifth-century predecessor,Hellanikos, the contents of whose Attic History in effect he took over and embellished. Second, its imputation of a substantivedebt to Hellanikos implies that the wellspring of Philochoros' material was, at least for those portions of the narrative treating the history of Athens prior to the fourth century, the body of oral tradition on which Hellanikos had supposedly drawn. Third, and most importantly, it 2 entails the notion that Philochoros wrote his work as a "response" to previous treatises of similar shapeand concern and that his goal was to narrate history from a distinct ideological slant. All three implications, when taken together,inspire little confidence in Philochoros as a reliable authority for the history of his city, and, if Jacoby's re- construction of local historical writing at Athens and its sourceswins any credence, the only natural conclusion is that Philochoros was the last of a long line of writers whose narratives were politically partisan, were factually distorted, and treated a tradition of historical material intimately rooted in the gossip of the late fifth century. The following pageswill re-assessPhilochoros as an historian and, adopting a completely fresh theoretical standpoint, will measurethe extent of his debt to a prior literary and intellectual tradition. In the process, they will maintain that Jacoby's analysis both of local historical writing as a literary genre and of the aims, methods and resources with which researchers of the classical and Hellenistic periods re- constructedhistory was simplistic and altogether misleading. First, they will assess the idea that Philochoros modelled his researcheson those of his literary predecessors within the tradition of local Attic historiography, beginning with Hellanikos in the late fifth century and ending with the Atthides of his near contemporariesMelanthios and Demon; the claim, it will be argued, rests upon an excessivelyrigid conceptof generic conformity and underestimatesthe extent to which the local historians of Attica varied from one another in respectof their aims, techniquesand methods. Second,they will
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