The Histories of Phylarchus: New Methods and Perspectives

The project The Histories of Phylarchus: New Methods and Perspectives. A Study in Fragmentary Historiography is an enquiry into a piece of rubble (Trümmerfeld) of Greek historiography of the Hellenistic age (323-30 BC). From that long period in Greek history not a single historical work survived to our time in a complete form. What we have are only fragments remains either preserved only partly in manuscripts, or, more often, in the works of authors of later generations. Phylarchus of Athens (or Naucratis in Egypt), who lived in the second half of the third century BC and wrote the Histories, belongs to the latter group. His 28-volumes account of the history of the years 272-220 BC is accessible only through later writers that made use of him for their own purposes. As such, it is an exciting challenge to take up for a modern scholar who would like to explore the content, aims and themes of the Histories. For a long time, Phylarchus was disregarded as a historian, his work was considered as written in sensational tone, his objective was though to be political propaganda. There was, however, little attention paid to the reasons for such reputation, and we shall ask: what if the work is misrepresented by later authors? The project focuses on the transformations caused by the indirect transmission of Phylarchus Histories, and its final goal is a comprehensive assessment of the remains of the work. The proposed working hypothesis predicts that the Histories were incorrectly interpeted until now, because the intermediate authors imposed their own ideas and perspectives on their content. In other words, project aims at new, balanced reading of the fragments of the Histories. The study takes account of, as well as develops, new approaches to ancient lost texts. Hence, the project delivers a wide-ranging description of the background, concepts and purposes of the authors that reused the Histories: Polybius, Plutarch, Athenaeus and others. Along with that, it systematically and in detail demonstrates how they used and represented Phylarchus narrative. New perspectives on the transmission of the Histories will hopefully provide scholars with tools to read and understand Phylarchus account of the history of Greece.

The project The Histories of Phylarchus: New Methods and Perspectives enquired into a piece of "rubble" (Trümmerfeld) of Greek historiography of the Hellenistic age (323-30 BC). From that long period in Greek history not a single historical work survived to our time in a complete form. What we have are only "fragments" or remains either preserved only partly in manuscripts, or, more often, in the works of authors of later generations. Phylarchus of Athens (or Naucratis in Egypt), who lived in the second half of the third century BC and wrote the Histories, belongs to the latter group. His 28-volumes account of the history of the years 272-220 BC is accessible only through later writers that made use of him for their own purposes. As such, it was an exciting challenge to take up for a modern scholar who would like to explore the content, aims and themes of the Histories. For a long time, Phylarchus was disregarded as a historian, his work was considered as written in sensational tone, and his objective was though to be political propaganda. There was, however, little attention paid to the reasons for such reputation; hence the main question posed in the project: what if the work is misrepresented by later authors? How can we approach this possible misrepresentation? The project focused on transformations caused by the indirect transmission of Phylarchus' Histories. It results in the most comprehensive assessment of the remains of the work offered to date. The working hypothesis anticipated that the Histories were incorrectly interpeted until now, because the intermediate authors imposed their own ideas and perspectives on the content of this work. The research carried out within the project has brought a new, balanced reading of the fragments of the Histories. The study had taken up the progress in the field of studies of fragmentary evidence, and has developed a refined new approaches and methods to Phylarchus' work in particular, as well as to ancient lost texts preserved in other authors in general. Hence, the project has involved a wide-ranging analysis of the background, concepts and purposes of the authors that reused the Histories: Polybius, Plutarch, Athenaeus and others. It systematically and in proper detail looked into how they used and represented Phylarchus' narrative. New perspectives on the transmission of the Histories available in the publications stemming from the conducted study shall provide scholars with tools to read and understand Phylarchus' account of the history of Greece.