Posted by Eugene Volokh:
Careful Relying on Ancient Sources:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_08_16-2009_08_22.shtml#1250637161
An amusing passage from The Ancient Economy (by M.I. Finley):
Even the rare figure to which an ancient author treats us is
suspect a priori .... [W]hen Thudycides (7.27.5) tells us that more
than 20,000 slaves escaped from Attica in the final decade of the
Peloponnesian War, just what do we in fact know? Did Thucydides
have a network or agents stationed along the border between Attica
and Boeotia for ten years counting the fugitives as they sneaked
across? This is not a frivolous question, given the solemnity with
which his statement is repeated in modern books and then used as
the basis for calculations and conclusions.
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