Personality selector

[Gnaeus Dionysius Draco]

Chaire Helena,

Herodotos is a rather famous Greek historian. Born in the 5th century BC in Halikarnassos. Cicero considered him as the "father of history". Hope this helps .

Good to see you post, by the way!

Kat'èrènèn,
Drakôn

[Gnaeus Dionysius Draco]

Ah, I now see Romulus beat me to it.

Draco

[Anonymous]

Chaírete Bárbaroi,

HeródotOS (and my friend Orce, you'll be our Collegium Graecum rectoer ) was the very FIRST historian!!! In his historíès >apódeksis (reports of my research) he even laid the basis for the word HISTORY an Sich. In those inquieries he researches how the PERSIAN WAR could ever have started (as you know the official historic explanation is the liberation of the repressed formerly-Greek-kolonies, who were botherd by the new Persian king Dareîos) In that he tries to avoid myths. As it happens, last year I did some reseaerch on HeródotOS and I find him to do "a bad job", for his explaination is or are several disputes with weman. The abduction of Hélena beïng one of them, I rest my case. Nevertheless he made a great contribution to the history (or story ) of Greece, and history (or research ) in general. So you must be a remarquable person, Hélena µou.

see you a lot in these parts,

Héllenos

MG: Orcus, we have an egg to peal -as we Dutch tend to do with eggs Vote for me
MMG: No hard feelings towards anyone! I just HATE latinisms

[Gnaeus Dionysius Draco]

Chaírete Bárbaroi,

Who are you calling a barbarian here eh?

Drakôn ;o)

[Quintus Aurelius Orcus]

Hellenons,
what kind of egg are you referring to?
Maybe you do something around Herodotus, Hellenos, since you know so much about him. Not to be taking as offensive in any kind of way, just as a suggestion. I love to see a essay being made on Herodotus, as Draco put it, he plays an important role in our modern day society as in this collegium. Its a suggestions, not an order.

Romulus

[Marcus Pomponius Lupus]

Chairete,

Orcus egrapsen:

Herodotus was a historian like Polybius and Tacitus. Well that is all what i know of him and that he had something to do with the march of the ten thousand

I could be way off here, but I thought the march of the ten thousand was Xenophoon's main subject in his Anabasis - sounds familiar, doesn't it Alexander ?

Lupus

[Gnaeus Dionysius Draco]

As an ex-hellenist, I also think it was Xenophon's (Kurou anabasis?) work and not Herodotos. AFAIK Herodotos wrote only one work, translated in Latin as Historiae.

Draco

[Anonymous]

Chaírete sas,

I thought that I might of went just a little overboard on this, I hope Hélena is not discouraged! But hey, great people are known as "Latin Inquisition", why wouldn't I be flatterd if people were to call me "Greek Inquisition" Of course there's no comparison all the way, for Germanists have a patent on propisms It's not rude, fílos µou, it's true, that's common knowledge. I do not attach any pejoratif valours to it. In fact, there is no comparison because, "you people" simply are the best in that domain. Anyway, that's enough sucking up to the princeps gens or praeceptor here

By the way we were both wrong on the Greek transcription on Draco! I looked it up and checked the accentuation rules; It'sDrákoon! Of course I had an ah-erlebnis, to cover my reputation as fresh an selfdeclared "Greek Inquisition" [If you really want to kwow the truth, I'm just lucky Lupus is modest, for my Greek isn't worth to be called "draft" compared to his ]

As for you Orce, this egg is getting hardly boiled! [have no fear, you're still my favourate fellow-scholar in my favorite collegium but that's ebough softness for one post!] I would be glad and honoured to write an essay about the relevance of the father of history, if you can please stop offending him, me and every greek or filhellene. For he is called
HERODOTOS note that the suffix is -os thank you very much.

Now to-morrow I intend to complete my Greek Transcription Tables and then I would maybe like to have some Grammatical lessons for Greek like Drákoon has made for Latin, but that's just an idea. Ther's also our daily life project this summer, an than I could do a Heródotos project.
And Lupus, you are very right indeed, how can I forget In fact, Xenófoon's tellings are quite differtent from say Heródotoses. That's an interesting topic too! (we will never be saturated ) Last year I studied The 'Hellénika Oxyrinchía' too. Very clarifying. The unknown other, P.Oxy. (Papyrus Oxyrinchu), has acceptable stories.

chairetísmous,

Héllenos

MG: an other wonderful day in the SVR

[Anonymous]

these rolling eyes should be more "on cloud nine"

[Anonymous]

Well, I'm certainly glad a simple question of mine has sparked such debate! Thanks to all for their replies
Vale bene!
-Helena

[Anonymous]

Alright everyone... You've discussed Herodotos and Xenophon but what about the greatest of the great in terms of "eye-witness" reportage? My particulat hero, since I am a historian, has always been Thucydides.
Reason being, that he did not throw in long myth- like stories as Herodotus often did. Can anyone forgive him or at least forget his gigantic ants digging for gold, or his multiple theories on how the Nile "got that way" ? Thucydides wanted to present a document for the future in the hope that lessons could be learned about politics, power and morality. He strived for the truth about a war, a different goal from Herodotos.

Thucidides did something far more original, even given the fact that I grant Herodotus is the father of western history. He was in the position as an insider (an Athenian general) and then as an exiled outsider, (tempermental Athens threw him out after failing to take back a rebelious colony) to report the Peloponnesian War. The last hurrah for Greek city-states before they all weakened, ripe for Philip of Macedonia to conquor.

I digress, but one must read and appreciate Thucydides to understand his tremendous accomplishment for history. He records as best he was able without myth or tall tales, the strategy, the personalities, and the extreme hardships suffered by all sides. Sparta was egged on by commercially successful and competitive Corinth to engage in a war they really half-heartedly wanted. Athens was becoming an emipe through the Delian League. It's colonies also begged Sparta to get involved. Quite a war and integral to the study of Classical Greece and its denoument.

Anyone want to share views on Mr. T? I'd be happy to talk.

[Anonymous]

Forgive me, please, in my rush to write I misspelled Herodotos' name a few times myself. Transliteration will be the end of me.

Helena E.

[Gnaeus Dionysius Draco]

Chaire Helena,

Alright everyone... You've discussed Herodotos and Xenophon but what about the greatest of the great in terms of "eye-witness" reportage? My particulat hero, since I am a historian, has always been Thucydides.
Reason being, that he did not throw in long myth- like stories as Herodotus often did. Can anyone forgive him or at least forget his gigantic ants digging for gold, or his multiple theories on how the Nile "got that way" ? Thucydides wanted to present a document for the future in the hope that lessons could be learned about politics, power and morality. He strived for the truth about a war, a different goal from Herodotos.

Thucidides did something far more original, even given the fact that I grant Herodotus is the father of western history. He was in the position as an insider (an Athenian general) and then as an exiled outsider, (tempermental Athens threw him out after failing to take back a rebelious colony) to report the Peloponnesian War. The last hurrah for Greek city-states before they all weakened, ripe for Philip of Macedonia to conquor.

I digress, but one must read and appreciate Thucydides to understand his tremendous accomplishment for history. He records as best he was able without myth or tall tales, the strategy, the personalities, and the extreme hardships suffered by all sides. Sparta was egged on by commercially successful and competitive Corinth to engage in a war they really half-heartedly wanted. Athens was becoming an emipe through the Delian League. It's colonies also begged Sparta to get involved. Quite a war and integral to the study of Classical Greece and its denoument.

Anyone want to share views on Mr. T? I'd be happy to talk.

Well, I agree with most of what you say. However, it appears that in secondary schools only Herodotos is studied in depth. As such, it's hard to compare (I personally never read the original Greek of Thoukydides). One might compare them to Suetonius and Tacitus, who both handled comparable subject matter but in an entirely different way. In the end of the day Tacitus was the better writer and probably the more thorough and earnest historian but Suetonius is very amusing.

Herodotos is much the same: amusing to read, even though it's not entirely historical. I think the Greeks and Romans, when they read Herodotos, also knew this.

Kat'èrènèn,
Drakon

[Anonymous]

Thanks Draco, for responding to my note. It is true that students of ancient history and the classical languages often don't encounter T. until they reach university. That is where I made my first encounter with him to any great degree myself. American secondary education is lacking in alot of areas and is generally way behind European standards.
I just wanted to encourage people to read him, certainly for the most part in their own native language translations. I have only read passages in Greek and do find him daunting.

Re Suetonius and Tacitus, perhaps I need a good review of thier approaches. No wonder we remain interested and enthusiastic about ancient hx. It's subject matter is amazingly vast!

[Gnaeus Dionysius Draco]

Thanks Draco, for responding to my note. It is true that students of ancient history and the classical languages often don't encounter T. until they reach university. That is where I made my first encounter with him to any great degree myself. American secondary education is lacking in alot of areas and is generally way behind European standards.

An American once told me that secondary school is only good for half of the population. The other half breaks down into two distinct groups: those who are too stupid for it and those who are too smart for it.

But I think that university-level education is much the same, though. In fact it appears to be more difficult from what I've heard in some American universities.

I just wanted to encourage people to read him, certainly for the most part in their own native language translations. I have only read passages in Greek and do find him daunting.

I might get to it someday when I have time, but my priority list is filled with to-do-stuff already these days ... I've come to dislike summer, bleh.

Re Suetonius and Tacitus, perhaps I need a good review of thier approaches. No wonder we remain interested and enthusiastic about ancient hx. It's subject matter is amazingly vast!

Absolutely true.

As for Suetonius and Tacitus, a pet peeve of mine is that in most articles about the emperors, only Suetonius is used as source, and just repeated without a note of criticism. Historians from Antiquity were much more than just historians. If they had lived today they would be classified as historical fiction authors or perhaps political writers.

Draco

[Anonymous]

Khairete!

I wouldn't miss this, I love these generators! and So here's my top 5:

- Sappho (I guess she was the only female in the character list, or what?)
- Herodotos (lived close to my hometown, good match there and i LOVE history)
- Perikles (anyone who loves the Parthenon loves this guy, built Athens as we know it)
- Sokrates (well do I need to say anything?)
- Aristoteles (ditto)

[Gnaeus Dionysius Draco]

Chaire Hiera,

Yes, Sappho was the only female in the list of Greek personalities. This is not some sexist projection of my own, but sadly this is due to the fact that there are hardly any famous Greek women (because it was a paternalistic society).

Herodotos, close to your hometown? What do you mean by that? Your profile says you live in NY?

Still, you appear to be in good company .

Drakon

[Anonymous]

Khaire Drakon,

So I live in NY! (well most of the time, 9 months of the year) but I'm not originally from the U.S. I was born and raised -mostly- in Istanbul (where I am right now, until August), what was then Byzantium and Khalkedon as you know. Herodotos lived in Halikarnassos, which is now called Bodrum, a very popular holiday town in the Turkey's side of the Aegean. Speaking of which, I shortly came back from there after spending 3 weeks, visiting my dad and places like the Mauseleon, the Myndos gate and the recently restored Amphitheatre.

So indeed, we have a good share of the ancient personalities on our side


Hiera
-here and there

Herodotos, close to your hometown? What do you mean by that? Your profile says you live in NY?

Still, you appear to be in good company .

Drakon

[Anonymous]

Finally took the profile on Greek characters myself, philos.

1. Kleisthenes
2. Solon
3. Aristoteles
4. Herodotos
5. Drakon
6. Plato
7. Sappho
etc.
So I am in company with a few so called " tyranos" . Actually if I recall correctly Kleithenes brought great improvements to Athens and surrounding Achea. Solon was called in to establish rules about limiting servitude to the landowners by the people who actually worked the land. Drakon established laws regarding homocide which removed vengence killing by the murdered party's family. Not all bad improvements, making the way for later men like Perikles.
And yes, being a woman, I'm glad I at least got Sappho as number 7.
Great idea and fun as well, Drako. Thanks.

[Curio Agelastus]

Salvete omnes,

I notice you all refer to Anabasis as written by Xenophon. Now, being a good historian, (Or a pedantic Brit, your choice) I must point out that Anabasis was written by Themistogenes of Syracuse. The fact that most historians believe Themistogenes and Xenophon to be the same person is not conclusive proof that Xenophon wrote Anabasis. So there. :-p

In facetiousness,
Marcus Scribonius Curio Britannicus.