Criteria of Embarrassment in secular history
Posted: Thu Mar 09, 2023 10:07 am
The criteria of Embarrassment (If X didn't happen no one would want to claim it did) is an important tool in study of the Historical Jesus. It has been claimed that this criteria is not used outside religious studies.
I came across recently a counter-example. In M. Manlius and the Geese by Horsfall there is a discussion of the traditions of the Gothic (should be Gauls) sack of Rome c 387 BCE.
In the standard account the Goths (should be Gauls) failed to take the Capitoline Hill and an attempt to do so was foiled by the warning given to the Roman sentries by geese. However there is a minority tradition that the Goths (should be Gauls) did seize the Capitoline Hill and hence held briefly all Rome. Horsfall argues in detail that this minority tradition is prima-facie credible and is found in Roman as well as Greek sources. He then argues that we should believe this tradition because if it didn't happen Roman sources would never have claimed it did, while if it did happen there would be a strong tendency for a less humiliating version of the sack too develop.
This is in effect a use of the criteria of Embarrassment .
Andrew Criddle
I came across recently a counter-example. In M. Manlius and the Geese by Horsfall there is a discussion of the traditions of the Gothic (should be Gauls) sack of Rome c 387 BCE.
In the standard account the Goths (should be Gauls) failed to take the Capitoline Hill and an attempt to do so was foiled by the warning given to the Roman sentries by geese. However there is a minority tradition that the Goths (should be Gauls) did seize the Capitoline Hill and hence held briefly all Rome. Horsfall argues in detail that this minority tradition is prima-facie credible and is found in Roman as well as Greek sources. He then argues that we should believe this tradition because if it didn't happen Roman sources would never have claimed it did, while if it did happen there would be a strong tendency for a less humiliating version of the sack too develop.
This is in effect a use of the criteria of Embarrassment .
Andrew Criddle