Year: 2015
Type: article
Abstract: Although it has long been recognised that Heliodorus imbues his novel with verisimilitude via intertextual engagement with earlier historians, particularly Herodotus, this article argues that Heliodorus looked to contemporary, late antique exponents of historiography to provide stylistic models for his narrative of the siege of Syene in Book 9 of the Aethiopica. Conversely, this article also demonstrates that some historians, particularly Ammianus Marcellinus, composed their narratives of historical sieges based upon narrative topoi, and not exclusively, as has sometimes been suggested, on their personal experience of battle.
Source: Ancient Narrative
DOI: 10.17613/engys-hta24
Author: J. Ross, Alan
Institution: University of Oxford
Language: English
Topic: Classical Antiquity Studies
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2168548512