[WikiEN-l] Britannica attempts to become Wikipedia

[Delirium]

Kwan Ting Chan wrote:
> p.s. Still trying to work out which work the 1849 was referring to.
>   

That one was William Smith's [[Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography 
and Mythology]], which accounts for 500+ of our biographies of figures 
from classical antiquity (and most of that only in the 'A's!), many of 
them unedited. The original articles are a good summary of consensus 
opinion at the time, but a lot has been revised since then, sometimes 
pretty radically---perhaps surprising given that the people were already 
dead nearly 2000 years, but there have been discoveries of new 
manuscripts are archaeological sites, new readings and cross-referencing 
of existing manuscripts, changing opinion on authenticity and dating, 
etc. Most of this is relatively harmless, but it does result in us 
repeating a number of traditional histories that are now considered 
incorrect, not to mention placing people in the wrong century or location.

-Mark