A01=Ian Oliver
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Ancient History
Ancient military history
ancient politics
Author_Ian Oliver
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Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=HBJD
Category=HBLA
Category=HPS
Category=NHC
Category=NHD
Category=QDTS
classics
COP=United States
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Epideixis
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eq_history
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Greek philology
Ideology
Language_English
Military history
Oral Tradition
PA=Not yet available
Persian Wars
Price_€50 to €100
Propaganda
PS=Forthcoming
softlaunch
Warfare
Wisdom Performance
Product details
- ISBN 9781666936209
- Dimensions: 152 x 229mm
- Publication Date: 29 Jan 2025
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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By recognizing the pervasive influence that Herodotus’s career as an oral performer had on his composition of the Histories, The Audiences of Herodotus: Oral Performance and the Battle Narratives argues that the Histories’ versions of the three most important battles in the Persian Wars—the battles of Thermopylae, Salamis, and Plataea—persistently and disproportionately advance the interests, biases, and political agendas of distinct audiences in the mid-fifth century, well before Herodotus assembled his famous work of history as it survives to us. The Salamis and Plataea narratives reflect a mid-century audience of Athenians and their allies; the Thermopylae narrative reflects an Amphictyonic audience gathered at the Pythian Festival. Ian Oliver concludes that, as a participant in a culture of wisdom performance (epideixis), Herodotus originally composed short, ideologically motivated performance pieces that he intended to promote tendentious reinterpretations of these momentous events, then relied on these narratives when he composed his final text: the unitary Histories.
Ian Oliver is senior term professor and head of classical languages at Regis University in Denver.
