Download Thucydides (T.) reading assignment Book 1

Thucydides (T.) reading assignment
Book 1: Instructions: Students will be assigned ten (10-15) sections to summarize. The following is a
sample of the first ten units. I prepared these summaries prior to using the Landmark Thucydides
which already has summaries in place. Students are free to borrow and build on the summaries
already provided but will have to do their own overall summary for the 10-15 units. In addition to
summarizing the text students will be required to analyze at least one speech in terms of its rhetorical
effectiveness. A sample of how to do this will be provided in class and there are some notes on side B
of this handout to illustrate the assignment. My answers were deliberately short in this sample.
1. T. explains why he decided to write his history. T. claims that the PW was a great and significant war
by two sides at the height of their power. T. claims that it is the greatest disturbance of the Hellenic world.
This may be true, but his claim that it affected "the whole of mankind" appears, to me, as an exaggeration.
2. T. contrasts the vast majority of the Hellas with Attica in general and Athens in particular. Attica and
Athens, unlike other places, "has always been inhabited by the same race of people," and "the most
powerful [of immigrants] took refuge in Athens." Thus T. explains the rise of Athens to power.
3. T. here explains that previously, say at the time of the Trojan war, the Greeks were called by various
names (Danaasns; Argives; Achaeans). Only "followers of Achilles who came from Phtthiotic" were
called Hellenes. T. explains the origin of the name, tracing it to Hellen, the son of Deucalion.
4. Minos "was the first person to organize a navy," and "to put down piracy."
5. T. points out that in the past piracy was common and somewhat accepted. During this time everyone
carried arms.
6. "The Athenians were the first to give up the habit of carrying weapons and to adopt a way of living that
was more relaxed and luxurious."
7. Due to piracy coastal cities were fortified and built at some distance from the sea.
8. The efforts of Minos reduced piracy and weaker cities "were content to put up with being governed by
the stronger."
9. T. here provides background and reasons for the rise of Agamemnon to power. Pelops, who came from
Asia, a foreigner, nevertheless became so powerful that "the whole land was called after him."
10. Here T. makes a distinction between judging "cities by their appearance rather than by their actual
power." In his judgment one would have judged Sparta as less powerful than it was and Athens more
powerful. In this section one also learns that T. hesitates to give "complete confidence" to the details of
Homer's account.
Summary of units 1-10
In these first ten units T. establishes the greatness and significance of the PW. He provides
reasons for the prominence of Athens and some background for understanding how piracy factored into the
development of weak and strong city-states. One learns that "Hellas" derives from Hellen, the son of
Deucalion and that Pelops, an Asian and foreigner, is the one after whom the Peloponnesians are named.
Side B: In reporting on the rhetorical effectiveness of a given speech students are to
attempt to say something about the macro and micro context of the speech that they
analyze. I have chosen to use the largest macro-context possible as an illustration.
Macro-context:
The Greek islands and mainland were settled by Dorian, Ionian, and Aeolian speaking
Greeks from 1500-500 BCE.
City-states developed with Sparta and Athens as the most prominent
These are often distinguished by the following emphases
Sparta
Athens
Oligarchy
democracy
Land army
naval force
Laconic
liberal education; rhetoric
State/individual
individual/state
In 490 and 479 the Greeks united to defeat the Persians (recall the famous battle of the
300 Spartan hoplites at Thermopylae).
Sparta and Athens engaged in a war between 465 and 451 before making a 30 year peace
treaty
In 432 this treaty was broken and the war that Thucydides records breaks out. It lasts
until 404.
The speech of Brasidas, the Spartan commander, occurs in the theatre of the Chalcidice
(see map page 305) in the year 422. This speech is found Book 5 section 9, pages 306307. I will now provide the micro-context and an analysis of the speech in order to
illustrate the type of report that I want students to do. What follows is the setting of the
speech as reconstructed from Book 5, sections 6-10:
1. Brasidas establishes a base at Amphipolis.
2. Cleon (an overconfident Athenian General) establishes a base at Eion.
a. attacks Stagirus unsuccessfully
b. occupies Galepsus
c. sends envoys for more troops to allies in Odomanti and Thrace
d. awaits recruits while the troops grow a bit restless
3. Brasidas takes the high ground in Argilus in order to view Cleon’s movements.
4. Brasidas makes preparations for battle with 1500 Thracian mercenaries, all the
Edonians, 1000 Myrcinians and Chalcidian peltasts, and 2000 Spartan hoplites
5. Brasidas selects 150 hoplites for a surprise attack (a sally) and gives his soldiers a pep
talk (the speech on pages 306-07). Clearidas, the other Spartan commander, stands by
with the rest of the troops to aid the surprise attack.
6. Cleon, reacting to the restlessness of his troops, ventures near Amphipolis, sees
Brasidas’ armies but sounds the retreat too late and is defeated.
7. Brasidas wins the battle but also dies from a wound he received.