How to Write History is the title of a study by the classical Syrian[1] writer Lucian, which may be considered the only work on the theory of history-writing to survive from antiquity.[2]
The first part of Lucian’s essay involved a critical attack on contemporary historians. Lucian maintained that they confused history with panegyric, overloaded it with irrelevant details, and weighed it down with overblown rhetoric.[3]
Lucian recommended instead the virtues of clear narration, and the valorisation of truth.[4] He argued that the historian should write for all times, as “a free man, fearless, incorruptible, the friend of truth”;[5] and held up the work of Thucydides as the legislative template for all subsequent historians.[6] He argued that the "historian's sole task is to tell the tale as it happened" which is latter reflected in works of von Ranke among others.