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Collecting and Detecting Ancient Greek Historians through Wikibase and Wikidata

  • Leonardo D’Addario

This paper explores the potential of Wikibase and Wikidata for the collection and analysis of data and metadata about the quotations of Ancient Greek writers in The Histories of Polybius. This research is conducted within the framework of my PhD project “Detecting and retrieving lost historians” at Leipzig University. Most works of ancient Greek historians are lost and survive only through quotations by later sources. Classical scholars call these quotations “fragments.” The PhD project focuses on The Histories of Polybius (206–124 BCE ca.) as this work contains various references to earlier historiographers. To achieve these goals, I am developing a Wikibase instance called The Library of Polybius that collects data on the quotations of the lost historiographers cited by Polybius.

  • Keywords:
  • ancient Greek historiography,
  • Polybius,
  • Wikibase,
  • digital classics,
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Leonardo D’Addario

Leipzig University, Germany - ORCID: 0009-0004-5271-3878

  1. Bergamin, Giovanni, and Cristian Bacchi. 2018. “New Ways of Creating and Sharing Bibliographic Information: An Experiment of Using the Wikibase Data Model for UNIMARC Data.” JLIS.It 9, 3: 3 DOI: 10.4403/jlis.it-12458
  2. Babeu, Alison. 2019. “The Perseus Catalog: Of FRBR, Finding Aids, Linked Data, and Open Greek and Latin.” In Digital Classical Philology: Ancient Greek and Latin in the Digital Revolution, edited by Monica Berti, 53–72. Berlin: De Gruyter Saur.
  3. Berti, Monica. 2021. Digital Editions of Historical Fragmentary Texts. Heidelberg: Propylaeum (Digital Classics Books 5.).
  4. Comité français UNIMARC. s.d. “Manuel UNIMARC : format bibliographique.” Transition bibliographique - Programme national. <https://www.transition-bibliographique.fr/unimarc/manuel-unimarc-format-bibliographique/> (2025-08-05).
  5. Berti, Monica. 2024. “Digital Practice for Studying the Indirect Transmission of Classical Authors and Works.” In Treasuries of Literature: Anthologies, Lexica, Scholia and the Indirect Tradition of Classical Texts in the Greek World, edited by Federico Favi, and Virginia Mastellari, 189–206. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter.
  6. Forziati, Claudio, Annalisa Di Sabato, Rossella Molisso, e Chiara Mugnano. 2024. “La nuova LOD Platform di SHARE Catalogue: un’evoluzione nel segno delle pratiche collaborative della Share Family.” In Parsifal. Un modello di collaborazione bibliotecaria per condividere la conoscenza registrata, a cura di Silvano Danieli, 105-25. Firenze: Firenze University Press DOI: 10.36253/979-12-215-0356-2.14
  7. IFLA. 2022. “UNIMARC Bibliographic (3rd Ed.) Updates.” IFLA. <https://www.ifla.org/g/unimarc-rg/unimarc-bibliographic-3rd-edition-with-updates/>.
  8. Blackwell, Christopher, and Neel Smith. 2019. “Homer and the Papyri: The Canonical Text in Antiquity.” In Digital Classical Philology: Ancient Greek and Latin in the Digital Revolution, edited by Monica Berti, 73–92. Berlin: De Gruyter Saur.
  9. Wikipedia. 2025. “Wiki.” <https://it.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wiki&oldid=146124906>.
  10. Büttner-Wobst, Theodor, edited by. 1882–19052. Polybius, Historiae, 4 vols. Leipzig: B. G. Teubner (Bibliotheca Scriptorum Graecorum et Romanorum Teubneriana).
  11. Cayless, Hugh A. 2019 “Sustaining Linked Ancient World Data.” In Digital Classical Philology: Ancient Greek and Latin in the Digital Revolution, edited by Monica Berti, 35–50. Berlin: De Gruyter Saur.
  12. Hau, Lisa I. 2024 “Athenaeus as Covertext for Hellenistic Historiography: The Fragments of Polybius as Case Study.” In Fragmente einer fragmentierten Welt: Zur Problematik des Umgangs mit Fragmenten in der gegenwärtigen klassisch-philologischen Forschung, edited by Felix Neuerburg, Theodoros Tsiampokalos, and Piotr Wozniczka, 151–76. Berlin: De Gruyter.
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  • Publication Year: 2026
  • Pages: 85-97
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
  • © 2026 Author(s)

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  • Publication Year: 2026
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
  • © 2026 Author(s)

Chapter Information

Chapter Title

Collecting and Detecting Ancient Greek Historians through Wikibase and Wikidata

Authors

Leonardo D’Addario

Language

English

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-1010-2.14

Peer Reviewed

Publication Year

2026

Copyright Information

© 2026 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Bibliographic Information

Book Title

Wikidata e la ricerca. Condividere esperienze / Wikidata and Research. Sharing Experiences

Book Subtitle

Atti del Convegno, Firenze, 5-6 giugno 2025 / Conference proceedings, Florence, 5-6 June 2025

Editors

Elena Marangoni, Camillo Carlo Pellizzari di San Girolamo

Peer Reviewed

Number of Pages

378

Publication Year

2026

Copyright Information

© 2026 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Publisher Name

Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/979-12-215-1010-2

ISBN Print

979-12-215-1009-6

eISBN (pdf)

979-12-215-1010-2

Series Title

Studi e saggi

Series ISSN

2704-6478

Series E-ISSN

2704-5919

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