Literary Texts and the Roman Historian (Approaching the Ancient World) - Softcover

"Potter has given us a well-organized, elegant exposition of the nature of Roman literary texts and the available methodologies for making historical sense of them. Powerful in both its range and its depth, this book should be of interest to historians in all fields." -Classical World "This excellent book addresses the challenges confronting the modern student of ancient history and histriography...I recommend this book to everyone...." -Religious Studies Review "Congratulations to David Potter for a book that imparts important information while posing and thoughtfully considering questions critical for all those interested in using ancient literary texts for historical purposes....[T]he end result is, in most instances, stimulating." -Thomas M. Banchich, Canisius College "The work . . is distinguished by the depth and breadth of Potter's knowledge of the material, both ancient and modern, and by the power of intellect that has organized so much into something so coherent." -P. S. Derow, University of Oxford

Literary Texts and the Roman Historian looks at literary texts from the Roman Empire which depict actual events. It examines the ways in which these texts were created, disseminated and read.
Beside covering the major Roman historical authors such as Livy and Tacitus, he also considers the contributions of authors in other genres like:
* Cicero
* Lucian
* Aulus Gellius.
Literary Texts and the Roman Historian provides an accessible and concise introduction to the complexities of Roman historiography.