It was written by Thucydides, an Athenian historian who also happened to serve as an Athenian general during the war. 8.85, Alcibiades prevents Samian soldiers’ attack on Athens, calls for end to the 400. Estimates for Thucydides’ date of birth (c.460) hinge on his probable age upon entering military service. Make them your examples, and, esteeming courage to be freedom and freedom to be happiness, do not weigh too nicely the perils of war. Donald Kagan, "The Speeches in Thucydides and the Mytilene Debate", Ernst Badian, "Thucydides and the Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War. 8.47–8.48, Pissander to pave way for Alcibiades’ return. Join us. Nevertheless, scholars have sought to detect the sources behind the various sections of the History. 8.78, Athenians reinforced, Pelop unwilling to fight. “government of the 5,000.” 8.65, Popular party suspicious of each other. To succeed in a plot was to have a shrewd head, to divine a plot a still shrewder; but to try to provide against having to do either was to break up your party and to be afraid of your adversaries. Though specific in detail, the questions he addressed were timeless: What makes nations go to war? Instead, Thucydides strives to create the impression of a seamless and irrefutable narrative. 8.25, Hermocrates prepares “finishing blow” to Athens, Alcibiades in Teichiussa. There are scholars, however, who doubt this. https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/thucydides. It was embraced by many of the author's contemporaries and immediate successors with enthusiasm; indeed, many authors sought to complete the unfinished history. Of the speeches, the most famous is the funeral oration of Pericles, which is found in Book Two. In its chronologies and narrative, the “History of the Peloponnesian War” is a marvel of direct prose, as Thucydides combines multiple sources into a single compelling voice. Thucydides almost never names his informants and alludes to competing versions of events only a handful of times. Its system of government favored austere militarism and adherence to tradition. Frequently, Thucydides appears to assert knowledge of the thoughts of individuals at key moments in the narrative. The History is especially concerned with the lawlessness and atrocities committed by Greek citizens to each other in the name of one side or another in the war. Thucydides makes sure to inform his reader that he, unlike Homer, is not a poet prone to exaggeration, but instead a historian, whose stories may not give "momentary pleasure," but "whose intended meaning will be challenged by the truth of the facts. “The whole of Hellas used once to carry arms, their habitations being unprotected and their communication with each other unsafe; indeed, to wear arms was as much a part of everyday life with them as with the barbarians.”. And when people are entering upon a war they do things the wrong way round. Thucydides' History is extraordinarily dense and complex. Since the 19th-century ...read more, In 336 B.C., Alexander the Great became the leader of the Greek kingdom of Macedonia. "[11] By distancing himself from the storytelling practices of Homer, Thucydides makes it clear that while he does consider mythology and epics to be evidence, these works cannot be given much credibility, and that it takes an impartial and empirically minded historian, such as himself, to accurately portray the events of the past. [1] On the one hand, some scholars view the work as an objective and scientific piece of history. Some events depicted in the History, such as the Melian dialogue, describe early instances of realpolitik or power politics. It specifically discusses in several passages the socially and culturally degenerative effects of war on humanity itself. © 2020 A&E Television Networks, LLC. The History of the Peloponnesian War (Greek: Ἱστορίαι, "Histories") is a historical account of the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC), which was fought between the Peloponnesian League (led by Sparta) and the Delian League (led by Athens).It was written by Thucydides, an Athenian historian who also served as an Athenian general during the war. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War. 255, Codex Vaticanus 126, Codex Laurentianus LXIX.2, Codex Palatinus 252, Codex Monacensis 430, Codex Monacensis 228, and Codex Britannicus II, 727.[17]. Over the next centuries, numerous copies were made of the work, ensuring its survival past the dark ages. Lucian also parodies it (among others) in his satire The True Histories. Thucydides' work, however, Popper goes on to say, represents "an interpretation, a point of view; and in this we need not agree with him." In 422, the Athenians under their leader Cleon made an unsuccessful attempt to retake Amphipolis. In several passages (1.14.3, 2.75–76, 7.36.2–3), Thucydides describes in detail various innovations in the conduct of siegeworks or naval warfare. The longer a war lasts, the more things tend to depend on accidents. until his death at the Battle of Thermopylae against the Persian army in 480 B.C. You are simply victims of your own pleasure in listening, and are more like an audience sitting at the feet of a professional lecturer than a parliament discussing matters of state.”, “For famous men have the whole earth as their memorial: it is not only the inscriptions on their graves in their own country that mark them out; no, in foreign lands also, not in any visible form but in people's hearts, their memory abides and grows. And when people are entering upon a war they do things the wrong way round. Neither you nor we can see into them: we have to abide their outcome in the dark. Note: Some versions omit the "who have been".Book I, 1.84-[4]History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I, Book III, 3.39-[3]History of the Peloponnesian War, Book III, Book I, 1.13-[1] (See also: Karl Marx, Grundrisse, Introduction p. 7)History of the Peloponnesian War, Book I, Book IV, 4.59-[2]; "Nobody is driven into war by ignorance, and no one who thinks that he will gain anything from it is deterred by fear." By the first century B.C. The greatest of these speeches, such as the Athenian leader Pericles’ oration for his city’s war dead, offer lasting insight into the politics of war and the complexities of human nature. The subsequent expansion of the empire is defended by these Athenians, "...the nature of the case first compelled us to advance our empire to its present height; fear being our principal motive, though honor and interest came afterward."

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