Talk:Arrian

Untitled
"This is somehow the equivalent of a modern historian trying to write in the English of Shakespeare."

Untitled
I'm not going to make the change, but I suggest the author think about deleting or modifying this sentence. Writing in the style of a prior historical period is of course difficult, but the comparison with our trying to write the English of Shakespeare is not really apt because Shakespeare was a poet, and a very florid one, not a military historian of a classical literary period. The comparison would be appropriate, I think, if Arrian were trying to write like Homer or Sophocles, maybe. I can't think of any English equivalent that would compare classical Attic prose to koine appropriately, and favor deleting the sentence or adding one or two remarks about the effort Arrian made to write in the classical Attic style, common among writers at that time, and the awkwardness of style that resulted from that. I like the article overall. That is my only comment.

--McTeague 16:57, 3 May 2006 (UTC)

I removed this sentences from the article.

"The battle as a victory of a Roman infantry heavy force against armored barbarian cavalry stands in stark contrast to the Battle of Adrianople (378) disaster at Adrianople in 378."

The battle of Adrianopel has nothing to do with the live of Arrian and the roman army of the 2nd century AD was vastly different from the forces of the late 4th century AD. Also Arrian did not command a pure heavy infantry force but his army had lots of supporting lighter and missile troops and cavalry. At Adrainople tactical mistakes by the commanding emperor Valens were much more important than any postulated superiority of gothic cavalry, they just attacked at the right moment when the roman infantry was already engaged while their left cavalry wing was partly still moving into position and partily already fighting the gothic infantry and thus couldn't protect the flanks.

Changed "Alan cataphracts" to "Alan cavalry", as Arrian clearly states in the last surviving line of the Ektaxis kata Alanoon that the "Scythians [are] lightly armed and [have] unprotected horses", and thus can hardly be described as cataphracts. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 149.135.109.169 (talk) 10:42, 28 October 2007 (UTC)

Style
I think the part concerning Arrian's works contains a bit too many personal remarks, sometimes to the point of being flippant. Any thoughts?--K.C. Tang (talk) 06:21, 25 December 2007 (UTC)

Illustration
A photo of a probable likeness of Arrian exists, see http://www.fernhill.com/arrianus-nederlands.htm This should be included in the article, with precedence to "Alexander", and I believe it is legitimately available.--Richard Hawkins (talk) 21:05, 7 July 2008 (UTC)

Bithynian, not Greek
I feel it's pretty safe to call Arrian a Bithynian since the guy was motivated by love of his native Bithynia to write a book of its history. He dedicates the book as an offering to the nation of Bithynia. There's really nothing more that's humanly possible to do to prove that you're a Bithynian. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Abu America (talk • contribs) 07:15, 26 October 2009 (UTC)

Guys, this is like arguing whether a Texan is "of Anglo-Saxon ethnicity". Of course he is, but this also goes almost without saying, implicit in the fact that he is Texan. Such was the result of complete Hellenistic dominance in Asia Minor for centuries. So if our Texan publishes a book about Texas, would you go "see, we told you he wasn't Anglo-Saxon at all"? "Greek" unlike today wasn't an "ethnicity" (remarkably, all of our sources saying he was "Greek" do not use the word "ethnicity", and neither should we), it was just the general fact of being not a tribesman from the hills but participating in worldwide civilization. --dab (𒁳) 09:04, 5 February 2015 (UTC)


 * Are you really not aware that millions of Texans are not "of Anglo-Saxon ethnicity"?--98.111.164.239 (talk) 09:45, 28 March 2020 (UTC)

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Epictetus
"Arrian left an Encheiridion (Handbook) of Epictetus' philosophy." He did a lot more than that; he wrote the whole Discourses. Most philosophers don't even read the Encheiridion anymore because the Discourses are so much fuller. I also disagree with "In a comparison of the contents of the Enchiridion with the Discourses, it is apparent that the former contains material not present within the latter, suggesting an original lost source for the Enchiridion." That's not the usual explanation; rather, the portions of Encheiridion that don't have an obvious parallel in the extant Discourses are usually thought to refer to the lost portions of the latter.--98.111.164.239 (talk) 09:53, 28 March 2020 (UTC)

Tilliborus is not a real work by Arrian
Under "Biographical series" it says:

"There were also a number of monographs or biographies, including of Dion of Syracuse, Timoleon of Corinth, and Tilliborus, a brigand or robber of Asia minor, which are now lost.[86][87][88][89][90] "

But the work about Tilliborus is most likely just a joke made by Lukian in his "Alexander the False Prophet"; in the Anabasis, Arrian goes on and on about writing great literature about a great historical figure, that the writer of the story has to be worthy of his subject etc. He would not have written a book about some robber. This is exactly what Lukian makes fun of with his remark, that he could write about such a deviant person as Alexander of Abonuteichos, since someone like Arrian wrote about the robber Tilliboros.

Reference:Sabine Müller: Icons, Images, Interpretations: Arrian,Lukian, their Relationship, and Alexander at the Kydnos, in: Karanos 1, 2018, pp. 67-86, p. 71-72.

Greetings 84.171.73.236 (talk) 21:46, 19 July 2020 (UTC)