Editing Historian (section)

====Ancient historians====
In the 19th century scholars used to study ancient Greek and Roman historians to see how generally reliable they were. In recent decades, however, scholars have focused more on the constructions, genres, and meanings that ancient historians sought to convey to their audiences.<ref name="Marincola">{{cite book |last1=Marincola |first1=John  |editor-first1=John |editor-last1=Marincola |chapter=Introduction |title=A Companion to Greek and Roman Historiography |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |date=September 2007 |pages=xvii-xix, xxiii|doi=10.1002/9781405185110 |isbn=978-1-4051-0216-2 |chapter-url=http://swbplus.bsz-bw.de/bsz336147708cov.htm }}</ref> History is always written with contemporary concerns and ancient historians wrote their histories in response to the needs of their times.<ref name="Marincola" /> Out of thousands of Greek and Roman historians, only the tiniest fraction's works survive and it is out of this small pool that ancient historians and ancient historiography are analyzed today.<ref name="Marincola" /> Modern historians of the ancient world have to deal with diverse types of evidence, which are debated more today than in the 19th century due to innovations in the field.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Finley |first1=M.I. |title=Ancient History: Evidence and Models |date=2008 |publisher=ACLS History |isbn=978-1597405348 |page=7|quote=I believe the nature and uses of the evidence about antiquity are being debated more widely and determinedly today than at any time since...the early nineteenth century. Partly this is a consequence of the exponential increase in the quantity of available archaeological information and in the quantity of publications generally in ancient studies, and partly it reflects new approaches to the study of history, new interests and the formulation of new questions.}}</ref>

Ancient historians were very different from modern historians in terms of goals, documentation, sources, and methods.<ref name="Nicolai">{{cite book |last1=Nicolai |first1=Roberto |chapter=The Place of History in the Ancient World |title=A Companion to Greek and Roman Historiography |publisher=Wiley-Blackwell |date=September 2007 |pages=3–5, 7|doi=10.1002/9781405185110.ch1|isbn=978-1-4051-0216-2 }}</ref> For instance, chronological systems were not widely used, their sources were often absorbed (traceability of such sources usually disappeared), and the goal of an ancient work was often to create political or military paradigms. It was only after the emergence of Christianity that philosophies of history grew in prominence due to the destiny of man from the Christian account.<ref name="Nicolai" /> Epics such as [[Homer]]'s works were used by historians and considered history even by [[Thucydides]].<ref name="Nicolai" />