ABSTRACT
This chapter takes us across centuries, mapping the developments in historical writing from the time of the ancient Greeks to late antiquity. This timeline covers the decline of the Roman Empire to the rise of Christianity. The chapter examines the emergence of historical writing in ancient Greece with the contributions of Herodotus and Thucydides. A distinction is made between mythical writing about the past and the ethnographical histories of Herodotus and of the more systematic Thucydides. The writings of Thucydides lacked the diversity and the sheer excitement of Herodotus. Some have suggested that the originality of Thucydides lies in the very fact that he attempts to gather all human action within the realm of what is humanly possible. The demise of Tacitus marks the end of historians writing in the language of Rome and the last of the important Pagan historians.
