Criterion of multiple attestation
Imagine you and your friend saw a cool magic trick. Your friend tells your teacher about the trick, but the teacher doesn't believe it because one person's word is not enough. However, if two other friends also saw the trick and tell the teacher the same story, then the teacher is more likely to believe that the trick really happened.
The criterion of multiple attestation is like having other friends who saw the same magic trick. When we study history, sometimes people tell us something happened a long time ago, but we don't know if it's true or not. One way we can check if it's true is to see if other people from the same time and place also talked about it. If multiple sources tell us the same thing, we can be more sure that what they're saying is true.
So, the criterion of multiple attestation means that if many different sources from the same time and place tell us the same thing about an event or person, we're more likely to believe it's true. Just like if many friends saw the same magic trick, we're more likely to believe it happened.
The criterion of multiple attestation is like having other friends who saw the same magic trick. When we study history, sometimes people tell us something happened a long time ago, but we don't know if it's true or not. One way we can check if it's true is to see if other people from the same time and place also talked about it. If multiple sources tell us the same thing, we can be more sure that what they're saying is true.
So, the criterion of multiple attestation means that if many different sources from the same time and place tell us the same thing about an event or person, we're more likely to believe it's true. Just like if many friends saw the same magic trick, we're more likely to believe it happened.