Seven Types of Fiction in the Greek Historians

On the flyleaf of his personal copy of The Red and the Black, Stendhal wrote: ‘I believe that the truth in small as in large things, is almost unattainable – at least a truth that is somewhat circumstantial. Monsieur de Tracy used to say to me: truth can be found only in novels.’1 Ever since the emergence of ‘scientific’, evidence-based history during the second half of the nineteenth century, 2 the discipline of ancient history has set itself the task of establishing what actually happened in the past. In this day and age such positivism may well seem naïve to many, yet the ancient Greek and Roman historians themselves deserve much of the responsibility for giving the overall impression that their narratives correspond closely to events as they in fact happened. This is because they have the power to cast a spell over their readers by creating narratives that are so intensely vivid that the events seem to be taking place before our very eyes.3 And that raises the question of what kind of truth they were attempting to reveal. Is it a truth that today can be found only in novels?.