Note 183 — Chapter XII · THE OPPOSITION
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It is not to be inferred that ancient historians as such were unreliable. In those times, as in ours, the value of an historical narrative must be judged by estimating the character and capacity of the writer and the means at his disposal. Many modern historians have been special pleaders, some consciously, like Froude and von Treitschke, and most have been impelled by personal sympathies and antipathies of many kinds.
It is, however, a fact that the writers of antiquity consciously used falsehoods in what they believed to be details, if they supposed that they could thereby more forcibly present the essential character of a transaction, or better enforce a moral lesson. The extreme danger of such a practice need not be insisted on, nor did all writers engage in it. But Panaetius and Cicero (Cic. De Orat. ii. 59; De Off. ii. 14), Quintillian (ii. 26-39) and the Church Fathers, unhesitatingly defend it (Eusebius, Praep. Evan., John Chrysost. De Sac. i. 6-8, Clemens Alex. Strom, vii. 9).