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Thucydides - Some Small Notes:
Thucydides (circa 460-c. 400 BC), Greek historian known for his History of the
Peloponnesian War, a conflict in which he himself had been an important participant. This book
earned him a reputation as one of the foremost historians of antiquity. His concern with
objectivity exerted a strong influence on such later Greco-Roman historians as Polybius and
Dio Cassius.
Born in or near Athens, Thucydides was the son of an aristocratic Athenian. When the
Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta broke out in 431 BC, Thucydides
discerned its importance and formulated plans for 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 failed to arrive in time to prevent the capture of Amphipolis, which was besieged by
the Spartan general Brasidas. For this failure Thucydides was exiled and spent the next 20
years abroad. About 404 BC he was recalled from exile.
Thucydides' great work, the History of the Peloponnesian War, covers three phases of the
war: the conflict between Athens and Sparta from 431 to 421 BC, ended by the Peace of
Nicias; the Sicilian expedition of the Athenians from 415 to its disastrous failure in 413 BC;
and the renewed war between Athens and Sparta from 413 to 404 BC. The history is
incomplete, breaking off in 411 BC.
Thucydides brought to his undertaking a practical acquaintance with both politics and military
science. His chief interest was in the military side of the war, which he presented in a
straightforward, direct style, avoiding the digressive storytelling of Herodotus. The account is
chronological, by season. Thucydides obtained his material through personal observation or
from statements made by others present at the events. His research, he declared, was made
laborious by the conflicting accounts of eyewitnesses, which he weighed with great care. His
approach thus had accuracy as an ideal; that he achieved it, by and large, has been confirmed by
contemporary inscriptions and writings. To lend his history greater vividness, however, and to
portray the leading figures of war, he gave them lengthy speeches. These speeches represent
what he thought was “most opportune” for the participants to have said, although he tried to
make them conform to what he or others remembered of them.