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III - THE HISTORIAN'S CHARACTER
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 January 2010
Summary
Narrative or historical truth must needs be highly estimable … 'Tis itself a part of moral truth. To be a judge in one requires a judgement in the other. The morals, the character, and genius of an author must be thoroughly considered; and the historian or relater of things important to mankind must, whoever he be, approve himself many ways to us, both in respect of his judgement, candour, and disinterestedness, ere we are bound to take anything on his authority.
The historian's task is to narrate, but he must also win credibility for that narrative: his task is therefore also to persuade his audience that he is the proper person to tell the story and, moreover, that his account is one that should be believed. In his capacity as persuader, the historian will often try to shape the audience's perception of his character and to use this as an additional claim to authority; indeed, among the Roman historians, where explicit professions of research are rarer than with the Greeks, the shaping of the narrator's character takes on a correspondingly larger role. But most of the historians, Greek and Roman, try to shape their audience's perception of their character. Nor is this surprising when we consider the teachings of rhetoric.
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- Authority and Tradition in Ancient Historiography , pp. 128 - 174Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1997