The Roman Historians

The Roman Historiansprovides a clear survey and a critical analysis of five centuries of historical writing in and about ancient Rome. The book examines authors of various historical genres_narrative, biography, and autobiography_and places them within the political and social framework of the late Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. Ronald Mellor illuminates how and why Roman authors told the stories of their past. All Roman historical writing is highly political and deeply moral, and we see here how the political experience and moral vision of the historian shapes the historical narrative and intimately informs the content, the rhetoric and the literary style of the history.

Ronald Mellor is Professor of History at UCLA. He is the author of Tacitus (1993) and The Historians of Ancient Rome: An Anthology (1997).