Tuesday, February 14, 2023
Biography
Ronald Syme, "History or Biography: the Case of Tiberius Caesar," in his Roman Papers, III (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1984), pp. 937-952 (at 937):
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Biography offers an attractive approach to history, or a substitute. When the ancient world is put under contribution, the operation might seem easy enough. The facts are accessible without undue effort, having been sifted and digested by generations of scholars. Familiar characters and periods thus tend to engross attention. Scarcely a year now passes without its biographies of Caesar or of Cicero, some of them good in their fashion, others perhaps not highly valued even by their authors. By contrast, wide fields await exploitation in Late Antiquity. There is a sore need for lives of Athanasius or of Jerome not written by clerics of any persuasion.
