Thukydides (2)Thucydides

(circa 460-400 BCE) A Greek historian noted for his account of the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE).

Thukydides was a remarkable man because of the innovations he introduced to the recording of historical events; he followed Herodotus by a generation and, although he never mentioned Herodotus by name, he had clearly read Herodotus’ historical works; unlike Herodotus, Thukydides did not find supernatural causes and reasons for the unfolding of the war; he was unromantic in the sense that he did not quote oracles or trace the heritage of the war’s participants to the gods but, like everyone else in Greece, Thukydides did not expect the war between Athens and Sparta to last for 27 years; he might have begun recording the war as a “project” but it soon became a lifelong commitment.

Before the time of Thukydides, the dating of historical events was blurred and nebulous; historical events like the Trojan War, the settling of Boeotia, and the settlement of the Peloponnesian Peninsula by the Dorians were accepted facts in ancient Greece but the actual dates of these events were unknown; Thukydides introduced the idea of dating the elements of the Peloponnesian War by listing events yearly from the beginning of the war, breaking down each year into Summer and Winter and further defining each season as early, middle and late; this may seem crude to us but in ancient Greece, this was a truly novel and clever innovation; Thukydides died before his history was completed and the final years of the Peloponnesian War were recorded by Xenophon.

There are several excellent translations of the History of the Peloponnesian War and you can find them at your local library or you can order one through the Book Shop on this site which is linked to Amazon.com; I recommend the Penguin Classics version (ISBN 0140440399).