Techniques of Refutation

Abstract This chapter begins with a survey of how polemic and refutation were integral parts of historiography from its inception. More specific evidence concerning the manner and method of historiographical polemic is offered by an examination of book 12 of Polybius’ history, where he refutes the historian Timaeus, and Josephus’ work Against Apion, where he refutes Apion and many other historians who had maligned the Jews. The chapter then details the variety of techniques Plutarch employs in his attempts to refute Herodotus’ account, and traces how the simpler, somewhat schematic refutations of Herodotus’ earlier books give way to a more complex attack that uses literary sources to contradict what Herodotus had written, as well as evidence provided by dedications and religious observances which Plutarch knew, not to mention the usual rhetorical tools such as the argument from probability.