DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9184#0021
NEW CHAPTERS IN GREEK HISTORY.
CHAPTER I.
the verification of ancient history.
There is a notable distinction between the records of
ancient and the records of modern history. All that
we possess of records of ancient history, that is, of the
ages before the great barbarian invasions, reaches us as
wreckage, as a small remnant which has survived the
flood of ages of ignorance and has floated down to us.
The records of modern history, on the other hand, are
mostly on our side of the flood. From this one fact
arise great differences in method between the investiga-
tion of the history of Egypt or Assyria, Greece or Rome,
and the investigation of modern history, some of which
will be mentioned below. But the most important differ-
ence lies in the far greater necessity for verification in the
case of ancient history, wherever verification is possible.
The great difficulty of writers on modern history is in
co-ordinating the vast masses of material before them,
comparing statement with statement and writer with
writer, and deciding which version of a story has the
better authority. Writing and printing have for several
centuries past been so usual that almost everything im-
portant which has happened has been somewhere or other
recorded. It is the quantity rather than the scarcity of
information which makes our great difficulty in dealing
with modern, and particularly with very modern times.
The opposite holds of ancient history. There the great
b
ft y
CHAPTER I.
the verification of ancient history.
There is a notable distinction between the records of
ancient and the records of modern history. All that
we possess of records of ancient history, that is, of the
ages before the great barbarian invasions, reaches us as
wreckage, as a small remnant which has survived the
flood of ages of ignorance and has floated down to us.
The records of modern history, on the other hand, are
mostly on our side of the flood. From this one fact
arise great differences in method between the investiga-
tion of the history of Egypt or Assyria, Greece or Rome,
and the investigation of modern history, some of which
will be mentioned below. But the most important differ-
ence lies in the far greater necessity for verification in the
case of ancient history, wherever verification is possible.
The great difficulty of writers on modern history is in
co-ordinating the vast masses of material before them,
comparing statement with statement and writer with
writer, and deciding which version of a story has the
better authority. Writing and printing have for several
centuries past been so usual that almost everything im-
portant which has happened has been somewhere or other
recorded. It is the quantity rather than the scarcity of
information which makes our great difficulty in dealing
with modern, and particularly with very modern times.
The opposite holds of ancient history. There the great
b
ft y