TY - JOUR
TI - Ctesias and the Importance of His Writings Revisited
AU - Almagor, Eran
TI - Ctesias and the Importance of His Writings Revisited
AB - Following the recent attempts to rehabilitate the reputation of Ctesias and the information given in his works, this paper proposes to understand certain of the seemingly fanciful details that were associated with the physician and his writings. It tries to shed some light on several uncertainties connected with Ctesias (i.e., his sojourn in Persia) and the Persica (i.e., date, original style and sources of imagery). It argues that the pedestrian lists included in the work might have been later interpolations and that the minor works circulating under Ctesias’ name might have been either sections of the Persica that were taken out to be presented as stand-alone volumes or else falsely attributed to him. The paper addresses the Indica and puts forward several possibilities concerning its relation with the Persica. The influence of Ctesias on the author Deinon is examined, and in the appendix the impact of the Persica on Xenophon’s Anabasis is analyzed.
VL - 2012
IS - Volume 19
PY - 2013
SN - 1897-3426
C1 - 2084-3909
SP - 9
EP - 40
DO - 10.4467/20843909EL.12.001.0742
UR - https://ejournals.eu/en/journal/electrum/article/ctesias-and-the-importance-of-his-writings-revisited
KW - Persica
KW - Indica
KW - Artaxerxes II
KW - Xenophon
KW - Anabasis
KW - Greek Historiography
KW - Photius
KW - Plutarch
KW - Deinon
KW - Ctesias