ABSTRACT
The ancient sources for the period c. 800-399 BC are both varied and numerous. Literary sources are the most accessible for students, both historical writers such as Herodotos, Thucydides, Xenophon, the Athenaion Politeia, and Plutarch, and the poets, such as Simonides, Pindar, the tragedians, and Aristophanes; in addition, there are the speeches in the law-courts, such as those of Lysias. But the aim of this collection has also been to give access to other sources, such as information recorded on stone (see Epigraphy) and papyrus (see Papyrology), as well as historians whose work only survives in ‘fragments’, small sections quoted or cited by other ancient historians. What follows below can at best be only a minimal introduction to Greek historiography (historical writing), and is aimed at helping the reader to understand the aims and methodology of ancient authors.
