Livy's Alexander Digression (9.17–19): Counterfactuals and Apologetics

Morello, Ruth

doi:10.2307/3184860

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…See for a relevant collection Pernot 2013: 133-59. For a discussion on the place and function of Alexander's digression in Livy, see among others Morello 2002;Briquel 2015. 126 According to Livy, he found these two versions in Valerius ).…”

Section: The Role Of Declamatio: Diffusion and Inflation Of A Histori...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Pompey's Head and Caesar's Tears: the History of an Anecdote

Vassiliades

2022

C&M

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In many sources, Caesar is said to have wept and become indignant at the sight of Pompey’s head presented to him as a gift from Ptolemy XIII. Given that Caesar does not mention the episode in De Bello Ciuili, this paper attempts, through a chronological survey of later extant sources, to determine their interdependence by observing the stable and fluid elements in each, and then to outline the history of the shaping of this anecdote. The episode might have been included in early accounts of the events surrounding Pompey’s death, produced by pro-Caesarian historians in the immediate aftermath of Caesar’s death. Declamatio not only picked up and reworked this historical anecdote and led to its reinterpretation in an anti-Caesarian way, but also probably played a major role in its broader diffusion.

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Section: The Role Of Declamatio: Diffusion and Inflation Of A Histori...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Pompey's Head and Caesar's Tears: the History of an Anecdote

Vassiliades

2022

C&M

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“…Even before explicit attention to such counterfactuality, this had been an implicit mode of reasoning within scholarly historical works, going back at least to the Roman historian Livy's analysis of how a war between the armies of Alexander the Great and Rome would have played out (Ab Urbe Condita 9. 17-19;Morello 2002 This line of arguing was recognised as 'counterfactual' by Max Weber, who started his career as an ancient historian. Shortly after the publication of Meyer's work, he noted how the argument that the development of European history would have shifted dramatically with a different outcome of the battle at Marathon rested on a series of assumptions.…”

Section: Contingency Causality and Counterfactualitymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Size of History: Coincidence, Counterfactuality and Questions of Scale in History

Hekster¹

2016

The Frontiers Collection

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Historians try to interpret the past by analysing patterns in human behaviour in earlier periods of time. In some ways, that excludes 'coincidence' as a mode of interpretation. Most historians view coincidences as closely related events that lack causal relationship. That type of coincidence does not fit into a historical narrative, because historians tend to focus on causality, action, and consequence. This is noticeably linked to questions of historical scale: the choice for the scale of a specific narrative decides whether certain events are coincidental to the history which is being described, or causal factors within that history. This relation between historical coincidence and the scale of writing history is at the centre of this contribution. It focuses on different trends in writing history, and analyses the possibilities to use 'coincidence' as an interpretative tool in each of them. In doing so, this article discusses counterfactual historical analysis ('what if history'), determinist views of history and their relation to speculative philosophy of history, 'cliodynamics' and 'big history'. It ultimately argues for historical accounts that pay attention to both the large processes that are likely to lead to certain trajectories, and the enormous number of micro-causes that triggered the events as they happened. Coincidence might fall outside of the analysis of (macro-) historians who are looking for a comprehensive view of historical processes, but could still play a proper role in thinking about historical trajectories.

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“…9.17-19, with esp. Morello (2002). On counterfactuals in Roman historiography more broadly, see Suerbaum (1997).…”

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confidence: 99%

Sideshadowing Actium: Counterfactual History in Lollius’Naumachia(Horace,Epistles1.18)

Cowan¹

2018

Antichthon

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Among the personal hobbies which Horace recommends his young friend Lollius conduct at a discreet distance from his potens amicus is the re-enactment of the battle of Actium, which should only be undertaken in the privacy of his father’s estate. Critics have noted that the potential offence in this seemingly affirmative celebration of the ‘miracle of Actium’ lies in the casting of Lollius’ brother as his opponent, thus acknowledging the civil nature of the battle which was at least downplayed, if not elided, in official discourse. They have overlooked, however, the further subversive element in Horace’s reference to ‘whichever of the two (alterutrum)’ Victory crowns. This presents the counterfactual possibility, both in the Epistle and in the naumachia which serves as a parallel mimesis, that Antony might have won the battle of Actium. This instance of ‘sideshadowing’ demands to be set in a number of contexts, such as the use of counterfactuals in historiographical depictions of battles and the phenomenon whereby some public naumachiae had outcomes contrary to that of the historical battle they were re-enacting. In particular, the very possibility of an Antonian victory renders the Augustan principate contingent, in opposition to the providential, teleological inevitability with which it, and especially its foundational battle, were depicted elsewhere in Augustan poetry. Such an interpretation is supported by Lucan’s allusion to this passage in his Dyrrachium episode, the only other non-Lucretian instance of alterutrum in extant Latin poetry.

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Livy's Alexander Digression (9.17–19): Counterfactuals and Apologetics

Cited by 6 publications

References 5 publications

Pompey's Head and Caesar's Tears: the History of an Anecdote

Pompey's Head and Caesar's Tears: the History of an Anecdote

The Size of History: Coincidence, Counterfactuality and Questions of Scale in History

Sideshadowing Actium: Counterfactual History in Lollius’Naumachia(Horace,Epistles1.18)

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