Historians, Antiquarians, Grammarians: Methodological Problems in the Classification and Structuring of FGrHist IV

Abstract

This article contains a methodological discussion of the concept of ‘antiquarian literature’ applied to ancient Greek literature. It first analyzes the various ways in which Felix Jacoby, Arnaldo Momigliano and others have conceptualized antiquarian literature. In a second step it shows how the problem of defining and distinguishing it from biography, grammatical treatises and philosophical works has an impact on how FGrHist IV, dedicated to “Biography and Antiquarian Literature”, should be structured and which works it should contain. In an appendix, two drafts of FGrHistfrom Jacoby’s Nachlaß are published.