User talk:VANESSIUS

Paternity of Servius Tullius
Hi, VANESSIUS. I've reverted your change to the Servius Tullius article's infobox, restoring his paternity to uncertain. Several accounts are provided in the text, and there is no reason to prefer Livy's apparently rationalising authority to that of any other Roman or Greek writer or tradition, some of which offer his paternity as divine. In dealing with Roman historiography, we can't pick and chose our preferred sources and variations in favour of what seems the most rational chain of events. Please note that the infobox is provided as a summary of the article as a whole. Nothing should be in it that is not covered by sourced material in the main article itself. Thank you for reading this. Haploidavey (talk) 17:04, 17 September 2022 (UTC)


 * @Haploidavey just for clarification, im not favoring Livy's claim, thats why I wrote "(Livy)" to show thats its his claim and nothing more, like it was written for the claims on his spouse VANESSIUS (talk) 18:19, 17 September 2022 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the note. Infoboxes are intended as a simple summary of material cited in the main article body. They should not be used for presentation of material that's debated in the article.
 * Livy himself was far from sure of his ground in claiming the likely paternity of Servius. If we introduce such material in the infobox, and deal justly with it, and with competing views, it starts becoming a mini-article. So "Uncertain" says all that's needed. Reductionism in action, because that's how infoboxes must function when it comes to the Humanities. The bluntest tool in the box is the infobox itself. Anyhow, that's just my personal prejudice talking. Haploidavey (talk) 19:02, 17 September 2022 (UTC)
 * I do see what you mean about the spouse question as precedent; I'm not criticising your strategy, it's just that while there are two named spouse traditions there are several traditions (some anonymous) regarding S's father. Some have a great deal more weight than others. Haploidavey (talk) 19:19, 17 September 2022 (UTC)