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+--- Thread: "One source events" (/showthread.php?tid=15857)
"One source events" - Jona Lendering - 10-06-2009
I do not know if "one source events" is a common name; I think I just coined this phrase. What I mean is events for which we have only one source. For example:
* Cyrus conquered Lydia before Babylonia (only in Herodotus + derivate sources)
* Ptolemy III captured Babylon (only Ptolemy III chronicle)
* The Jews shouted that Jesus' blood would be on them and on their children (only in Matthew)
* Agricola's campaigns in Britain (only Tacitus)
* Caracalla awarded the Roman citizenship to every freeborn male to increase his revenues (Cassius Dio only)
Anyone else?
Re: "One source events" - Epictetus - 10-06-2009
Almost everything from Caesar's Gaul campaigns?
Re: "One source events" - Jona Lendering - 10-06-2009
Quote:Almost everything from Caesar's Gaul campaigns?Nope; Cassius Dio describes it too, using a different source, and Cicero has several (brief) remarks. But I am actually hoping for some non-military examples (that's why I posted it in "Ancient Civ Talk").
I need it for this article, already finished but still amendable.
Re: "One source events" - D B Campbell - 10-06-2009
Quote:* Agricola's campaigns in Britain (only Tacitus)Also in Cassius Dio, who seems to preserve a different tradition that emphasizes his circumnavigation of the island, rather than his decisive ( :wink: ) defeat of the Caledonian peoples.
Agricola is, of course, also epigraphically attested in the province. No previous governor (as far as I recall) has this distinction. The lead pipe from Chester (mentioned in another thread) carries his name, along with a (very fragmentary) inscription from Verulamium and a writing tablet from Carlisle.
Perhaps Frontinus' governorship of Britain would be a better example? Only Tacitus mentions this -- not even Frontinus himself gives any hint.
Re: "One source events" - D B Campbell - 10-06-2009
Quote:Almost everything from Caesar's Gaul campaigns?You could have Caesar's elephant in Britain, which I have always suspected was an invention of Polyaenus (Strat. 8.23.5); surely the great man would have mentioned his own elephant! :?
Re: "One source events" - Eleatic Guest - 10-06-2009
I know a similar puzzle. I once tried to compile all evidence for the use of metal armour on warships prior to the age of the ironclad. For many potential examples I ended up with two sources, one hinting at some form of metal armour, but the other being utterly silent on it. Now the question is if sources of the later kind should receive the same weight as the earlier ones. I believe yes, since iron armour would have been such an ununsual, conspicuous and notable thing that it should have aroused the curiosity of any ancient and medieval writer if it existed. Therefore, I regarded the lack of mentioning in all theses cases as just as strong evidence against the existence of iron-cladding. But certainty is, of course, impossible and it drove me nuts. Such source constellations are insoluble.
Re: "One source events" - Jona Lendering - 10-06-2009
Quote:I ought to have known that!Jona Lendering:3p0my3vh Wrote:* Agricola's campaigns in Britain (only Tacitus)Also in Cassius Dio
Re: "One source events" - Justin of the New Yorkii - 10-06-2009
The pharaoh Apries' failed campaign against Cyrene and Amasis' subsequent usurpation are recorded only by Herodotus, if I'm not mistaken.
Re: "One source events" - Jona Lendering - 10-06-2009
Quote:The pharaoh Apries' failed campaign against Cyrene and Amasis' subsequent usurpation are recorded only by Herodotus, if I'm not mistaken.Yes, they are good ones. Anyone else?
Re: "One source events" - Sean Manning - 10-07-2009
- The Persian campaign in Anatolia after Issos (Q. Curtius Rufus)
- Isn't Ctesias our ony source for events at the Great King's court during some reigns? (Non-Greek evidence can confirm the existence of some people he names, but not the details of life at court)
- That Tiberius Gracchus passed through Etruria and saw it empty of freemen (Plutarch)