Set Speeches in History

Ancient historians inserted composed speeches (demegoriai) at pivotal moments, often as paired opposing debates, to dramatize the arguments and motives driving events. Thucydides (late 5th c. BCE) famously admitted he gave each speaker the words it seemed fitting they should say for the occasion, while staying close to their general sense. The device, also used by Herodotus and by Roman historians like Livy and Tacitus, became a signature of classical historiography.

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