The Intellectual Preconditions for ‘Universal’ History in Greece

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ID: 333072
2026
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Abstract
Abstract Although universal history did not exist before Ephorus, the Greeks from their earliest literature betray an interest in universalizing thinking. This displays itself in the Shield of Achilles in the Iliad, in Hesiod's myth of the races of humankind, or in Democritus' theorizing about the earliest human societies. The earliest historians Hecataeus and Herodotus cast their gaze widely over the Mediterranean, and the latter used Egyptian history to establish a chronological grid onto which could be mapped events of other societies. The later critic Dionysius of Halicarnassus saw in Herodotus a universalizing historian, putting together into a single account events that had occurred in widely scattered places and times. Thucydides claimed a different kind of universalizing in his history, arguing that the Peloponnesian War could be seen to recognize and analyse the recurring constants in human behaviour, whereas Aristotle, by contrast, argued that history, as an account of discrete and differing events, was inferior to philosophy in discovering universal truths.
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openalex_W7223031974 Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors John Marincola, Pietro Vannicelli
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Journal Oxford University Press eBooks
Year 2026
DOI
10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198915560.013.0009
URL
https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198915560.013.0009
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