Myth and History in the Historiography of Early Rome

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The histories of early Rome written in antiquity by the likes of Livy and Dionysius of Halicarnassus include many sensational stories, from the she-wolf suckling the twins to the miraculous conception of Servius Tullius and the epiphany of the Dioscuri at Lake Regillus. Even the more sober parts of the narrative are of dubious historicity, and certainly include a good deal of rhetorical invention, aetiologies and folktales. The essays composing this volume attempt to analyse these stories to explore the porous boundaries and the hybrid borrowings between myth, history and historiography, and the limits of historical knowledge.

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Tim Cornell is Professor Emeritus of Ancient History at the University of Manchester and recently (2018–22) President of the Society for the Promotion of Roman Studies. He is the General Editor of The Fragments of the Roman Historians (2013).
Nicolas L.J. Meunier is the author of a commented translation of Ennius’ Annales and of a study on Livy. He is currently Assistant Professor of Latin Language and Ancient History at the University of Louvain (UCLouvain).
Daniele Miano is Associate Professor of Ancient History at the University of Oslo. He has worked on polytheism in ancient Italy, on memorial practices in republican Rome, and on ancient and modern historiography.

Contributors are: Edoardo Bianchi, Tim Cornell, Roman M. Frolov, Chantal Gabrielli, Amber Gartrell, Nicolas L.J. Meunier, Daniele Miano, Marine Miquel, Jaclyn Neel, Stephen Oakley.
Contents
Historiography of Rome and Its Empire Series
Carsten H. Lange and Jesper M. Madsen

Acknowledgements
Note on Contributors

1 Introduction: The Historiography of Myth in Historiography
Daniele Miano

2 The Epiphanies of the Dioscuri: Myth or History?
Amber Gartrell

3 Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Theopompus, and the Historical Marvel: The Rhetoric of Myth and the Myth of Rhetoric
Daniele Miano

4 Augustan Historiography on the Mythical Aborigines: Ideology and Erudition in Dionysius, Trogus, and Timagenes
Edoardo Bianchi

5 The Methodology of Dionysius of Halicarnassus in Book 1 of the Roman Antiquities
Tim Cornell

6 Privatus or tribunus celerum? The Myth of Lucius Brutus and the Political Role of Private Individuals
Roman M. Frolov

7 Political Violence between Myth and History: The Examples of Accius and Cicero
Chantal Gabrielli

8 The Decemvirate and the Second Secession of the Plebs (451–449 BCE): A Historiographical fabula
Nicolas L.J. Meunier

9 Men, Gods and Places in Early Rome: Myths in History in the First Century BCE
Marine Miquel

10 The Precise Dating of Events in Dionysius’ Narrative of Rome’s Kings
Stephen P. Oakley

11 Sculpting History into Myth: Tarpeia and Foreign Conquest
Jaclyn Neel

Index
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