Theopompus of Chios

Book excerpt: Theopompus of Chios was one of the most important ancient Greek historians of the fourth century BC. Although his work has survived only in fragments, it is still a rich and vital source of information for Greek political, social, and intellectual history during the age of Philip of Macedon. This book explores both Theopompus's historical method and the intellectual milieu in which he worked, while placing the fragments themselves in "context" by examining where and why they are cited by later authors. Flower's illuminating and original study leads up to some important new conclusions about historical writing in the fourth century BC--that there was no so-called Isocratean school of rhetorical history; that Theopompus used moral explanations typical of Greek thought to account for historical changes; and that oral tradition, as opposed to rhetorical invention, was still vibrant in the fourth century. All Greek in the book is translated.