What is history and how should it be written? This important new anthology contains all the seminal texts that relate to the writing of history in the ancient world.

'My historian is to be this kind of man: fearless, above bribery, free, a friend of frank speech and truth, one who calls figs figs and a trough a trough'

What is history and how should it be written? How does it differ from other forms of writing? What responsibility does the historian bear? This new anthology of writings from the ancient world, when the study of history was just beginning, explores these questions and many more.

It ranges from longer pieces, such as the complete essays 'On Thucydides' by Dionysus, 'On the Malice of Herodotus' by Plutarch and the witty 'How to Write History' by Lucian, to key shorter writings by Polybius, Cicero, Xenophon and Pliny the Younger, brought together here in fresh new translations.