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THUCYDIDES
History of the Peloponnesian War
THE OTHER FACE OF HISTORY
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460 - 395 BC
• History of the Peloponnesian War
• Born in or near Athens, Thucydides was the son of
an aristocratic Athenian.
• Recording its course and outcome.
• In 424 BC he was appointed one of the generals
to command the Athenian fleet off the Thracian
coast but was defated by the Spartan general
Brasidas. For this failure Thucydides was exiled
for 20 years.
• About 404 BC he was recalled from exile.
Biography
Being exiled because he had been unable to defend
Amphipolis during the Archidamian War, the former Athenian
general Thucydides (c.460-c.395) wrote the history of the wars
fought between Athens and Sparta in the years 431-404.
Although he does his best to remain objective, Thucydides can
not always hide his personal judgment. For example, his account
of the plague at Athens in 429 slowly develops into a shocking
story about moral corruption.
• Called the father of "scientific history" due to his strict standards
of evidence gathering and analysis in terms of cause and effect
without reference to intervention by the gods.
• Interest in developing an understanding of human nature to explain
behaviour in such crises as plague and civil war.
Elite, wealthy, male
His family had owned a large estate in Thrace, one
that
even contained gold mines, and which allowed the
family considerable and lasting affluence. The
security and continued prosperity of the wealthy
estate must have necessitated formal ties with local
kings or chieftains
• Once exiled, Thucydides took permanent residence
in the estate and, given his ample income from the
gold mines, he was able to dedicate himself to fulltime
history writing and research, including many
fact-finding trips.
Sources of evidence
“It was also my fate to be an exile from my country
for twenty years after my command at Amphipolis;
and being present with both parties, and more
especially with the Peloponnesians by reason of my
exile, I had leisure to observe affairs somewhat
particularly.”
• Using his status as an exile from Athens to travel
freely among the Peloponnesian allies, he was able
to view the war from the perspective of both sides.
During this time, he conducted important research
for his history.
PURPOSE
"I have written my work, not as an essay which is to
win the applause of the moment, but as a
possession for all time.”
“Thucydides, an Athenian, wrote the history of the war
between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians,
beginning at the moment that it broke out, and
believing that it would be a great war and more
worthy of relation than any that had preceded it.
This belief was not without its grounds”.
Personal Context
Thucydides admired Pericles, approving of his power over
the people, and shows a palpable distaste for the
pandering demagogues who followed him.
Thucydides did not approve of the democratic mob nor the radical
democracy that Pericles ushered in but felt that it was acceptable in the
hands of a good leader.
• Generally, Thucydides exhibits a lack of bias in his
presentation of events, refusing, for example, to minimize
the negative effect of his own failure at Amphipolis.
• Thucydides was clearly moved by the suffering inherent in war and
concerned about the excesses to which human nature is apt to resort
in such circumstances. "War is a violent teacher".
As a military commander himself, Thucydides sees History as military
and political
Social Context
Sophists: professional educators who prepared students for a political life. “They taught a man
to reason dialectically, to argue back and forth all sides of a case, to discover the more
effective arguments for which side he needed to present, and then to convert this into a
persuasive speech.”
Thucydides set speeches
The set speeches are profoundly influenced by Sophist
philosophy, exploring divergent views and
presenting each side as powerfully as possible.
They are composed of argument and counter
argument, opinion and counter opinion. See
Corcyrean Debate
Curthoy and Docker, however say that it is still quite
clear that the speeches are written by Thucydides in
a style that is his own and not of the historical actors
Historical Context
METHODOLOGY
Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War
(highlighting lecture 15’s material)
Introduction (Th. 1.1)
Archailogia (Th. 1.2–23) — brief review of “ancient” history
illustrates the theme that sea power and wealth are necessary for
a great state
corrects perceived errors in Herodotus and others
Events leading up to the War (Th. 1.23–88)
Pentekontaëtia (Th. 1.89–117) — roughly fifty year period from
the close of the Persian War to outbreak of the Peloponnesian
War
connects Thucydides’ work with that of Herodotus
illustrates the real cause of the war: Sparta’s fear of Athens’
growing power
Outbreak of the War (Th. 1.118–146)
Rest of work proceeds on a year-by-year basis (Th. 2.1–
8.109)
methodology
places a high value on autopsy and eyewitness
testimony, and writes about many
episodes in which he himself probably took
part.
• consulted written documents
• interviewed participants in the events that he
records. Unlike Herodotus, he did not
recognize divine interventions in human
affairs.
• he was the first historian who attempted
anything like modern historical objectivity.
Narrative + Analytical History
“I will first write down an account of the disputes that explain
their breaking the Peace, so that no one will ever wonder
from what ground so great a war could arise among the
Greeks. I believe that the truest reason for the quarrel,
though least evident in what was said at the time, was the
growth of Athenian power, which put fear into the
Lacedaemonians and so compelled them into war.”
Justification for Construction
lengthy speeches that, as he himself states, were as best as could be
remembered of what was said—or, perhaps, what he thought ought to
have been said.
• it can be argued that, unless a historian were to write them down, these
speeches would not have been otherwise archived at all, which is
certainly not the case in the modern era, when records and archives
abound.
• Thucydides did not merely "go to the source", as a historian is
nowadays routinely urged to do, but actually rescued his mostly oral
sources from certain oblivion.
• These speeches are composed in a literary manner. Pericles' funeral
oration, which includes an impassioned moral defence of democracy,
heaps honour on the dead.
• Thucydides does not take the time to discuss the arts, literature or
society in which the book is set and in which he himself grew up.
• He was writing about an event, not a period, and as such took lengths
not to discuss anything unrelated.
Is History Fiction?
“With reference to the speeches in this history, some were
delivered before the war began, others while it was going
on; some I heard myself, others I got from various quarters;
it was in all cases difficult to carry them word for word in
one's memory, so my habit has been to make the speakers
say what was in my opinion demanded of them by the
various occasions, of course adhering as closely as
possible to the general sense of what they really said.”
In the Words of Thucydides
“And with reference to the narrative of events, far from
permitting myself to derive it from the first source that
came to hand, I did not even trust my own impressions, but it rests partly on
what I saw myself, partly on what others saw for me, the accuracy of the
report being always tried by the most severe and detailed tests
possible.”
“The absence of romance in my history will, I fear, detract somewhat from
its interest; but if it be judged useful by those inquirers who desire an
exact knowledge of the past as an aid to the interpretation of the future,
which in the course of human things must resemble if it does not reflect
it, I shall be content.’
"So averse to taking pains are most men in the search for the truth, and so
prone are they to turn to what lies ready at hand."
Donald Kelley;
Kelley portrays Herodotus and Thucydides in a Janus
like posture to emphasize the contrasting
perceptions they brought to History in its formative
stages. Herodotus concept of History consisted of a
broad tradition that focused on the great diversity of
human experience. Thucydides focused on the
headline events of political and military history.
They both however passed on to prosperity the first
law of historical method, which is to tell the truth.
Anne Curthoy and Docker;
Double Heritage of History
Herodotus
Thucydides
Male/female
Male
polyphonic
Monologic
Social/literary
narrative
Elite
Military/political
Post
Modernism
Analytical
Rankean
Empiricism