A New Take on Emotion in Polybius (On R. Loehr, Emotion and Historiography in Polybius' Histories)
Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: he paradox of the theory of 'tragic history' is that it persists in some form or other despite overwhelming skepticism among scholars that any such thing as a 'school of tragic history' ever existed.Studies that consider Polybius's comments about Phylarchus and the others he accuses of writing history in tragic style have had trouble approaching escape velocity and oftentimes persist with assumptions that originate from the theory of tragic history itself and not from Polybius's text.Such arguments presume, for instance, that Polybius accepts an Aristotelian definition of tragedy, or that Duris of Samos-who is never mentioned in the extant fragments of Polybius and whose connection to the Peripatos has been established primarily through a problematic emendation by Adamantios Korais 1 -wrote history in the Peripatetic style and therefore somehow illustrates the qualities of Phylarchus's narrative as described by Polybius, or even that Polybius's attack on Phylarchus is so disingenuous that it describes his own narrative as accurately as it describes those he polemicises against.As a result of assumptions like these, the theory of 'tragic history' has long stunted investigations into Polybius that otherwise might help us engage with his text in more satisfying and more meaningful ways.Regina M. Loehr's (hereafter 'L.') book, Emotions and Historiography in Polybius' Histories, in contrast, represents a promising and interesting new direction in studies of Polybius's narrative method.This book strikes at a central assumption of 'tragic history' and heads in a fruitful direction in the study of Polybian narrative theory.Specifically, Loehr reconsiders the longheld assumption, inspired by the theory of tragic history, that Polybius considered the depiction and arousal of emotions unsuitable for a serious work of history.L. begins her study by asking what place emotions do or should have in historiography ().By studying 'the historiographical role' of emotion in 1 Cf.Dalby ().T
Source: Histos
DOI: 10.29173/histos696
Author: Scott Farrington
Institution: Dickinson College
Language: English
Topic: Classical Antiquity Studies
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4407670532