Introduction to Ancient History

Week 2: Evidence

Where to find evidence

Secondary sources, above all. Sourcebooks, for some topics. Indices, when you know what works to search

– but indices are variable. Electronic databases. Skim reading, if there’s no index or you know

what you’re looking for. The more you study, the more you know.

Key Questions about Evidence

Reliability: genre, author. Not just ‘is the author reliable?’ but ‘could the author have known?’ All depends on what you want to ask.

Transmission: is this representative? Translation: what does it actually say? Interpretation: what does it mean?

Aristotle, Politics 1260a

Hence there are by nature various classes of rulers and ruled. For the free rules the slave, the male the female, and the man the child in a different way. And all possess the various parts of the soul, but possess them in different ways: for the slave has not got the deliberative part at all, and the female has it, but without full authority, while the child has it, but in an undeveloped form.

Transmission

Surviving evidence is not a random sample of everything that once existed.

Perishability of different materials; role of chance in survival and discovery.

What different people, especially in late antiquity (move from roll to codex) and early medieval period (copying) found valuable.

Transmission not always reliable or complete.

Aristotle

Recognised in antiquity as one of the key philosophical thinkers.

However, out of fashion in late antiquity, especially in the West, and not much used by Christian writers.

Most texts preserved by Arabs, until rediscovered in later Middle Ages.

Translation

Every translation is an interpretation: approximate, subjective, debateable.

Choice between literal rendition and attempting to ‘capture the spirit’.

Problem of untranslateable concepts. Exact wording doesn’t always matter; it

depends on the question you’re asking.

Aristotle, Politics 1260a

It is therefore clear that the same feature will be found in the other cases too, so that most instances of ruling and being ruled are natural. For the rule of free over slave, male over female, man over boy, are all different, because, while parts of the soul are present in each case, the distribution is different. Thus the deliberative faculty in the soul is not present at all in a slave; in a female it is present but ineffective, in a child present but undeveloped.

Commentary

If precise text is important, commentary can be useful: likely to discuss problems of transmission, meaning, context.

Problem: not every text discussed. Problem: no limits to what could be

commented on but practical limits to what is commented on; risk that your question won’t be addressed.

Interpretation

Above all, a matter of looking at the text or object ‘in context’: comparison or contrast with what else we know.

What is the right context? Rest of chapter, rest of work, other works by same author, works in the same genre, works dealing with similar topics, whole of society, modern theories.

Aristotle, Politics 1260a

Hence there are by nature various classes of rulers and ruled. For the free rules the slave, the male the female, and the man the child in a different way. And all possess the various parts of the soul, but possess them in different ways: for the slave has not got the deliberative part at all, and the female has it, but without full authority, while the child has it, but in an undeveloped form.

Commenting on Evidence

Always have questions in mind, if only ‘what does this tell me about X?’

Discuss any issues of transmission, translation, reliability, purpose of work.

Elucidate passage, explaining parts that aren’t clear; identify key ideas.

Relate passage to wider issues.