In that they should be able to read the ancient languages of the culture they study, for one.
Nobody said anything about "firsthand knowledge" in the sense of "having lived in the time of the ancients".
But if you insist, sure, a historian that have actually lived at the time, would have a far better understanding of it (all other things being equal, like writing ability and so on). I'd take Thucylides over any modern historian of the Peloponesian war, for example.
In that they should be able to read the ancient languages of the culture they study, for one.
Nobody said anything about "firsthand knowledge" in the sense of "having lived in the time of the ancients".
But if you insist, sure, a historian that have actually lived at the time, would have a far better understanding of it (all other things being equal, like writing ability and so on). I'd take Thucylides over any modern historian of the Peloponesian war, for example.