#Aristotle

Aristotle differentiates tragedy from historical writing:

“The poet and the historian differ not in that one writes in meter and the other not; for one could put the writings of Herodotus into verse and they would be history none the less, with or without meter. The difference resides in this: the one speaks of what has happened, and the other of what might be. Accordingly, poetry is more philosophical and more momentous than history. The poet speaks more of the universal, while the historian speaks of particulars. It is universal that when certain things turn out a certain way someone will in all likelihood or of necessity act or speak in a certain way—which is what the poet, though attaching particular names to the situation, strives for” (Poet. 1451a38–1451b10).

Roman copy 

2nd century B.C. 

of a Greek original, 325 B.C.

in the Museo Nazionale Romano

Rome