“While they’re our only source of the time, they’re incredibly biased towards/against the subject…”
“While they’re incredibly biased against/towards the subject, they’re our only source.”
TheHistoryMaster2520 on
Archaeology and considerations of realism also help
KipchakVibeCheck on
Everyone is biased, so we don’t have the luxury even in well recorded time periods.
spinosaurs70 on
If you aren’t willingly to press the right button you shouldn’t be a historian of the ancient world.
Go became an archeologist or research. a time period like modern Japan or late medieval Italy where we have a comparative diversity of sources.
Twootwootwoo on
Most ancient history is bs cuz of this, even when we have multiple sources they can still be full of shit.
Zardozin on
Kind of ignores that history is no longer confined to written sources.
CBT7commander on
Use them as a base to establish roughy ideas of the situation, and use contextual evidence to decipher what’s true and what isn’t.
RoyalArmyBeserker on
“8,000 Romans did not hold off and kill 240,000 “Barbarians” in a single engagement.”
“It’s literally one of two existing sources, the second source saying it was closer to 300,000.”
“… 240,000 it is.”
eagleOfBrittany on
“Alright so there were only 100 of us and there were maybe 100,000…no…200,000 of them! We fought them for hours, every one of us killing 1000 of them but over time our numbers dwindled. Suddenly trumpets appeared from the sky and angels from heaven descended to fight amongst our ranks. We routed the enemies and killed them to a man.”
StrixLiterata on
The best sources are not unbiased: they’re openly biased
thexraptor on
I WILL NOT TOLERATE HERODOTUS SLANDER IN MY PRESENCE
11 Comments
I’d press both buttons.
“While they’re our only source of the time, they’re incredibly biased towards/against the subject…”
“While they’re incredibly biased against/towards the subject, they’re our only source.”
Archaeology and considerations of realism also help
Everyone is biased, so we don’t have the luxury even in well recorded time periods.
If you aren’t willingly to press the right button you shouldn’t be a historian of the ancient world.
Go became an archeologist or research. a time period like modern Japan or late medieval Italy where we have a comparative diversity of sources.
Most ancient history is bs cuz of this, even when we have multiple sources they can still be full of shit.
Kind of ignores that history is no longer confined to written sources.
Use them as a base to establish roughy ideas of the situation, and use contextual evidence to decipher what’s true and what isn’t.
“8,000 Romans did not hold off and kill 240,000 “Barbarians” in a single engagement.”
“It’s literally one of two existing sources, the second source saying it was closer to 300,000.”
“… 240,000 it is.”
“Alright so there were only 100 of us and there were maybe 100,000…no…200,000 of them! We fought them for hours, every one of us killing 1000 of them but over time our numbers dwindled. Suddenly trumpets appeared from the sky and angels from heaven descended to fight amongst our ranks. We routed the enemies and killed them to a man.”
The best sources are not unbiased: they’re openly biased
I WILL NOT TOLERATE HERODOTUS SLANDER IN MY PRESENCE