Practice question · Multiple choice
A lost Greek history survives only as passages quoted by a later author who disagreed with it. What are you actually reading?
Hints
- Ask which passages a hostile author chooses to quote.
- The words may be exact. What is not?
Show the answer
C. The later author's selection: the parts he chose to attack
Why
Even word-perfect quotation transmits a sample chosen by someone with a purpose, so what survives is the argument's weakest face at whatever length suited the critic. It is why editions of fragmentary historians print the surrounding context, the frame is evidence about the frame-maker as much as the fragment is about its author.
Practise Primary vs Secondary Sources
The app has 3 more questions on this lesson, and keeps your place in the course. History I is free to start.
More questions on Primary vs Secondary Sources
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