Monday, June 01, 2020
Roman and Greek Historians Compared
Strabo 3.4.19 (tr. Horace Leonard Jones):
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Now although the Roman historians are imitators of the Greeks, they do not carry their imitation very far; for what they relate they merely translate from the Greeks, while the fondness for knowledge that they of themselves bring to their histories is inconsiderable; hence, whenever the Greeks leave gaps, all the filling in that is done by the other set of writers is inconsiderable—especially since most of the very famous names are Greek.
οἱ δὲ τῶν Ῥωμαίων συγγραφεῖς μιμοῦνται μὲν τοὺς Ἕλληνας, ἀλλ᾿ οὐκ ἐπὶ πολύ· καὶ γὰρ ἃ λέγουσι παρὰ τῶν Ἑλλήνων μεταφέρουσιν, ἐξ ἑαυτῶν δ᾿ οὐ πολὺ μὲν προσφέρονται τὸ φιλείδημον, ὥσθ᾿, ὁπόταν ἔλλειψις γένηται παρ᾿ ἐκείνων, οὐκ ἔστι πολὺ τὸ ἀναπληρούμενον ὑπὸ τῶν ἑτέρων, ἄλλως τε καὶ τῶν ὀνομάτων, ὅσα ἐνδοξότατα, τῶν πλείστων ὄντων Ἑλληνικῶν.
