THUCYDIDES, I
THUCYDIDES c. 460-c. 400 B. C. Thucydides is the author of a single book, The War of the Peloponnesians and the Athenians. He presents his "quest for truth" (I 20:3) as an account of a single political event, the twenty-seven-year war through which the Spartans and their allies brought down the Athenian empire. He claims that his study of it will be useful for those who seek clarity, not only about the war, but more generally about the past, and even about the future, which in his view will again resemble the past that he has brought to light. The book is littered with speeches by those who took part in the war, which speak to our own own moral and political concerns and add to the vivid presencing of it. They call upon us to take sides for and against them. It is by fostering these concerns that Thucydides makes us receptive to his claim of the war's universal significance. Thucydides himself, however, is very reticent about making explicit judgements. Just like in ...