Time Period
Proponents
Philosophy
Key Components
Influence
Ancient Peoples
Scribes carved the names of kings and their deeds into stone.
Prophets & scribes
Mythopoeic
Force – causation is external to man
Hebrew theocratic
Does not allow for change over time. Explained by repetition of events. Does not recognize rules of logic. Makes no effort to verify facts. The world is explained by way of images.
Linear and God-centered
History was cyclical in nature. There is no beginning and no end. The gods were involved in human affairs and displayed their power through spectacular events. Flattering perspective of leaders.
Creation marked beginning. Events marked progress toward the end.
Greece, 5th cent. A.D.
Herodotus – “Father of History” (The Histories), Thucydides (The Peloponnesian War)
Polybius (Universal History)
Empirical history
Used rational techniques and created the writing of history. Employed criticism to determine accuracy of facts. Herodotus checked his information against eyewitness accounts and documents. Thucydides wanted history to be useful, believing we can learn from our past mistakes. He also strove for objectivity.
Life still was a cycle and the gods were involved with human affairs, but humans also controlled outcomes. Herodotus and Thucydides are ranked among the greatest historians of all time. They transformed history from an oral story-telling tradition into more of a discipline by using verifiable facts and documents. Polybius said historians must travel to sites, participate in public events, and make use of documents and records. He also believed that we should learn from history.
Rome, 1st cent. A.D.
Sallust, Titus Livy, Plutarch, Suetonius, Julius Caesar, Cornelius Tacitus (Annals, and Histories)
Vegetius (The Military Institutions of the Romans)
Military and biographical history
Roman historians did not write objectively. They sermonized as moralists, condemning immorality and emphasizing virtue. Biographies emphasized the role of virtue and good character. Virtue or lack thereof determined a person’s or empire’s success.
Plutarch and Suetonius (Lives of the Caesars) were famous biographers. Tacitus was Rome’s greatest historian writing about political and military subjects. Livy wrote of Roman success and drew on past to rally morale. Copies of Vegetius’s works were carried by the armies of Charlemagne and medieval kings.
Christian Age, Medieval age, 4th cent. to 14th cent. A.D.
Eusebius of Caesarea ,
St. Augustine,
Procopius (Byzantine 6th cent – History of the Wars – of Emperor Justinian), Venerable Bede (Ecclesiastical History of the English People),
Otto of Freising (greatest of German chroniclers )
Matthew Paris (Greater Chronicle) & Jean Froissart (Chronicles)
Ecclesiastical history and history from sacred perspective
History was no longer viewed as cyclical. With Augustine, it became linear with a beginning (creation), a middle, and an end (the Coming of Christ). Eusebius wrote (History of the Church) that all history led to the Christian revelation. Augustine (The City of God) wrote an influential Christian perspective of history. They viewed history from the perspective that God was involved with humankind.
Key Premises: 1) History has purpose 2) History is linear 3) The endpoint is good and the process is progress 4) Man can discern the process by using his intellect 5) To understand history, man must comprehend divine revelation of scripture 6) Man is an active agent in the development of history.
Annals and chronicles, written by monks and later chroniclers, followed Augustine’s view of linear history. History was more focused on sacred rather than secular. Following Greek tradition, the supernatural was put back into history. Religion was the ultimate concern of mankind, and writers passed judgments on events. However, truthfulness still could not be verified, therefore history had little standing in the universities.
Otto of Freising – The Deeds of Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, Chronicle or History of Two Cities.
Matthew Paris & Jean Froissart – wrote of politics, military affairs, and God’s role in human affairs.
Modern Age, following the Renaissance (14th cent.)
Francesco Petrarca (Lives of Illustrious Men) wrote of Rome.
Niccolo Machiavelli (History of Florence)
Francesco Guicciardini (History of Italy)
Frances Bacon,
Leonardo Bruni (History of the Florentine People)
The Beginning of Modern History.
Political History – study of formal organizations of power.
History is no longer explained by supernatural happenings. Study of history is more secular and scientific. History divided into 3 periods: antiquity, middle ages, new age. Methods use more research, criticism, and analysis. Philology (hermeneutics) – verifying and authenticating old manuscripts – became important. Return to classical writings – history writing modeled after Livy, Virgil, and Tacitus.
Italian historians focused on political and military subjects, using Greek and Roman historians as models.
Guicciardini employed more research in papal archives, and wrote a more broad interpretive history covering larger geographic area.
Machiavelli wrote on politics and its human dimension. (The Prince) No sense that past peoples were different or had different values.
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