Conclusion

It is possible, then, to draw certain conclusions about the role of characterization in ancient historiography. It has emerged that this is not a non-subject, or a mere matter of rhetorical embellishment. A notion of what drives individuals is fundamental to any attempt to work out why these individuals do what they do.

We have also seen, however, that characterization in ancient historiography is a matter that goes well beyond labels of virtue or vice attached to particular people by the narrator. Characterization can also be a matter of style, of inflection, or of structure. As so often in the study of ancient narrative, it transpires that the twists and turns of narration - why a particular matter is handled at this point, and in this particular way - are almost as important as the author’s overt commentary. For an adequate appreciation of how characterization works in the classical historians, it is necessary to trust the singer and the song.

FURTHER READING

Although much work has been done on character and characterization in ancient literature, comparatively little of it has focused upon how this relates to historiography since Bruns 1898. The essays collected in Pelling 1990c are the place to start in coming to grips with the general issues, and the editor’s concluding piece therein (Pelling 1990a) draws conclusions relevant to historiography. Gill 1983 magisterially refutes the notion that the ancients had no concept of character development.

Beyond this, the most profit is to be had in works that deal with individual historians. Ash 1999a is illuminating on characterization in Tacitus’ Histories. Many of the contributions in Lane Fox 2004b, particularly those by Cawkwell, Braun, and Rood, make useful points about Xenophon’s presentation of his protagonists. Walbank 1972 analyzes the views on character of one of the most methodologically explicit of ancient historians; Woodman 1998 tackles, among many other matters, Tacitus’ haunting portrait of Tiberius.

Most profitable of all, however, is simply continued engagement with the texts of the ancient historians themselves. Recent commentaries have increasingly examined the contribution made by style and arrangement to the pictures presented of key historical figures. Horn-blower, CT, for example, has a great deal that is pertinent to this topic in relation to Thucydides. With regard to most historians, however, much still remains to be said.