Ebook: Timaeus of Tauromenium and Hellenistic Historiography

Timaeus of Tauromenium (350-260 BC) wrote the authoritative account of the Greeks in the Western Mediterranean. Like almost all the Hellenistic historians, his work survives only in fragments. Beyond an up-to-date treatment of this important author, this book shows that both the nature of the evidence and modern assumptions about historical writing in the Hellenistic period have skewed our treatment and judgement of lost historians. For Timaeus, much of our evidence is preserved in the polemical context of Polybius' Book 12. When we move outside that framework and examine the fragments of Timaeus in their proper context, we gain a greater appreciation for his method and his achievement, including his use of polemical invective and his composition of speeches. This examination of Timaeus also conveys a broader impression of the major lines of Hellenistic historiography.