Thucydides (/jusddiz/; Greek: , Thoukudds, Ancient Greek:

[tukydds]; c. 460 c. 395 BC) was an Athenian historian, political philosopher

and general. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the 5th century BC
war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed
the father of "scientific history" because of his strict standards of evidencegathering and analysis of cause and effect without reference to intervention by
the gods, as outlined in his introduction to his work.[1]

He has also been called the father of the school of political realism, which views
the relations between nations as based on might rather than right.[2] His text is
still studied at advanced military colleges worldwide,[citation needed] and the
Melian dialogue remains a seminal work of international relations theory.

More generally, Thucydides showed an interest in developing an understanding of

human nature to explain behaviour in such crises as plague, massacres, as in
that of the Melians, and civil war.

Contents

1 Life
1.1 Evidence from the Classical period
1.2 Later sources
1.3 The History of the Peloponnesian War
2 Critical interpretation
3 Thucydides versus Herodotus
4 Quotations
5 Quotations about Thucydides
6 See also
7 Notes
8 References and further reading
8.1 Primary sources
8.2 Secondary sources
9 External links

Life

In spite of his stature as a historian, modern historians know relatively little about
Thucydides's life. The most reliable information comes from his own History of
the Peloponnesian War, which expounds his nationality, paternity and native
locality. Thucydides informs us that he fought in the war, contracted the plague
and was exiled by the democracy. He may have also been involved in quelling the
Samian Revolt.[3]
Evidence from the Classical period

Thucydides identifies himself as an Athenian, telling us that his father's name

was Olorus and that he was from the Athenian deme of Halimous.[4] He survived
the Plague of Athens[5] that killed Pericles and many other Athenians. He also
records that he owned gold mines at Scapte Hyle (literally: "Dug Woodland"), a
coastal area in Thrace, opposite the island of Thasos.[6]
The ruins of Amphipolis as envisaged by E. Cousinry in 1831: the bridge over
the Strymon, the city fortifications, and the acropolis

Because of his influence in the Thracian region, Thucydides wrote, he was sent as
a strategos (general) to Thasos in 424 BC. During the winter of 424423 BC, the
Spartan general Brasidas attacked Amphipolis, a half-day's sail west from Thasos
on the Thracian coast, instigating the Battle of Amphipolis. Eucles, the Athenian
commander at Amphipolis, sent to Thucydides for help.[7] Brasidas, aware of
Thucydides's presence on Thasos and his influence with the people of Amphipolis,
and afraid of help arriving by sea, acted quickly to offer moderate terms to the
Amphipolitans for their surrender, which they accepted. Thus, when Thucydides
arrived, Amphipolis was already under Spartan control.[8]

Amphipolis was of considerable strategic importance, and news of its fall caused
great consternation in Athens.[9] It was blamed on Thucydides, although he
claimed that it was not his fault and that he had simply been unable to reach it in
time. Because of his failure to save Amphipolis, he was sent into exile:[10]

I lived through the whole of it, being of an age to comprehend events, and
giving my attention to them in order to know the exact truth about them. 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 his
exile from Athens, Thucydides wrote his most famous work "History of the
Peloponnesian War." Because he was in exile during this time, he was free to
speak his mind, denouncing Athens in his writing and exalting the victories of the
Laconians. Because Thucydides's was one of the first ever historians, this serves
one of the first occurrences of a history being biased.[11] He also conducted
important research for his history during this time, having claimed that he
pursued the project as he thought it would be one of the greatest wars waged
among the Greeks in terms of scale. This is all that Thucydides wrote about his
own life, but a few other facts are available from reliable contemporary sources.
Herodotus wrote that Thucydides's father's name, loros, was connected with
Thrace and Thracian royalty.[12] Thucydides was probably connected through
family to the Athenian statesman and general Miltiades, and his son Cimon,
leaders of the old aristocracy supplanted by the Radical Democrats. Cimon's
maternal grandfather's name was also Olorus, making the connection
exceedingly likely. Another Thucydides lived before the historian and was also
linked with Thrace, making a family connection between them very likely as well.
Finally, Herodotus confirms the connection of Thucydides's family with the mines
at Scapt Hl.[13]

Combining all the fragmentary evidence available, it seems that 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, which explains the adoption of the distinctly Thracian royal
name "loros" into the family. 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 full-time history writing and research, including many
fact-finding trips. In essence, he was a well-connected gentleman of considerable
resources who, by then retired from the political and military spheres, decided to
fund his own historical project.
Later sources

The remaining evidence for Thucydides's life comes from rather less reliable later
ancient sources. According to Pausanias, someone named Oenobius was able to
get a law passed allowing Thucydides to return to Athens, presumably sometime
shortly after the city's surrender and the end of the war in 404 BC.[14] Pausanias
goes on to say that Thucydides was murdered on his way back to Athens. Many
doubt this account, seeing evidence to suggest he lived as late as 397 BC.
Plutarch claims that his remains were returned to Athens and placed in Cimon's
family vault.[15]

The abrupt end to Thucydides's narrative, which breaks off in the middle of the
year 411 BC, has traditionally been interpreted as indicating that he died while
writing the book, although other explanations have been put forward.
Pericles

Inferences about Thucydides's character can only be drawn (with due caution)
from his book. His sardonic sense of humour is evident throughout, as when,
during his description of the Athenian plague, he remarks that old Athenians
seemed to remember a rhyme which said that with the Dorian War would come a
"great death". Some claimed that the rhyme was actually about a [death by]
"famine" or "starvation" (limos Greek [16]), and was only remembered as
[death by] "pestilence" (loimos Greek [17]) due to the current plague.
Thucydides then remarks that should another Dorian War come, this time
attended with a great dearth, the rhyme will be remembered as "dearth," and
any mention of "death" forgotten.[18]

Thucydides admired Pericles, approving of his power over the people and
showing a marked distaste for the demagogues who followed him. He did not
approve of the democratic mob nor the radical democracy that Pericles ushered
in but considered democracy acceptable when guided by a good leader.[19]
Thucydides's presentation of events is generally even-handed; for example, he
does not minimize the negative effect of his own failure at Amphipolis.
Occasionally, however, strong passions break through, as in his scathing
appraisals of the demagogues Cleon;[20][21] and Hyperbolus.[22] Cleon has
sometimes been connected with Thucydides's exile.[23]

That Thucydides was clearly moved by the suffering inherent in war and
concerned about the excesses to which human nature is prone in such
circumstances is evident in his analysis of the atrocities committed during civil
conflict on Corcyra,[24] which includes the phrase "War is a violent teacher"
(Greek ).
The History of the Peloponnesian War
Main article: History of the Peloponnesian War
The Acropolis in Athens
Ruins at Sparta

Thucydides believed that the Peloponnesian War represented an event of

unmatched magnitude.[25] His intention was to write an account of the events of

the late fifth century which would serve as "a possession for all time".[26] The
history breaks off near the end of the 21st year of the war and does not elaborate
on the final conflicts of the war. This facet of the work suggests that Thucydides
died whilst writing his history and more so, that his death was unexpected.

After his death, Thucydides's history was subdivided into eight books: its modern
title is the History of the Peloponnesian War. His great contribution to history and
historiography is contained in this one dense history of the 27-year war between
Athens and Sparta, each with their respective allies. This subdividing was most
likely done by librarians and archivists, themselves being historians and scholars,
most likely working in the Library of Alexandria.

Thucydides is generally regarded as one of the first true historians. Like his
predecessor Herodotus, known as "the father of history", Thucydides places a
high value on eyewitness testimony and writes about events in which he himself
probably took part. He also assiduously consulted written documents and
interviewed participants about the events that he recorded. Unlike Herodotus,
whose stories often teach that a foolish arrogance invites the wrath of the gods,
Thucydides does not acknowledge divine intervention in human affairs.[27]

A noteworthy difference between Thucydides's method of writing history and that

of modern historians is Thucydides's inclusion of lengthy formal speeches that, as
he himself states, were literary reconstructions rather than actual quotations of
what was said or, perhaps, what he believed ought to have been said.
Arguably, had he not done this, the gist of what was said would not otherwise be
known at all whereas today there is a plethora of documentation written
records, archives and recording technology for historians to consult. Therefore
Thucydides's method served to rescue his mostly oral sources from oblivion. We
do not know how these historical figures actually spoke. Thucydides's recreation
uses a heroic stylistic register. A celebrated example is Pericles' funeral oration,
which heaps honour on the dead and includes a defence of democracy:

The whole earth is the sepulchre of famous men; they are honoured not
only by columns and inscriptions in their own land, but in foreign nations on
memorials graven not on stone but in the hearts and minds of men.

Stylistically, the placement of this passage also serves to heighten the contrast
with the description of the plague in Athens immediately following it, which
graphically emphasizes the horror of human mortality, thereby conveying a
powerful sense of verisimilitude:

Though many lay unburied, birds and beasts would not touch them, or died
after tasting them [...]. The bodies of dying men lay one upon another, and half-

dead creatures reeled about the streets and gathered round all the fountains in
their longing for water. The sacred places also in which they had quartered
themselves were full of corpses of persons who had died there, just as they were;
for, as the disaster passed all bounds, men, not knowing what was to become of
them, became equally contemptuous of the gods' property and the gods' dues.
All the burial rites before in use were entirely upset, and they buried the bodies
as best they could. Many from want of the proper appliances, through so many of
their friends having died already, had recourse to the most shameless sepultures:
sometimes getting the start of those who had raised a pile, they threw their own
dead body upon the stranger's pyre and ignited it; sometimes they tossed the
corpse which they were carrying on the top of another that was burning, and so
went off.

Thucydides omits discussion of the arts, literature or the social milieu in which
the events in his book take place and in which he himself grew up. He saw
himself as recording an event, not a period, and went to considerable lengths to
exclude what he deemed frivolous or extraneous.
A bust of Thucydides.
Thucydides; cast of a renowned bust at Holkham Hall (Pushkin Museum)
Critical interpretation

Scholars traditionally view Thucydides as recognizing and teaching the lesson

that democracies need leadership, but that leadership can be dangerous to
democracy. Leo Strauss (in The City and Man) locates the problem in the nature
of Athenian democracy itself, about which, he argued, Thucydides had a deeply
ambivalent view: on one hand, Thucydides's own "wisdom was made possible" by
the Periclean democracy, which had the effect of liberating individual daring,
enterprise and questioning spirit, but this same liberation, by permitting the
growth of limitless political ambition, led to imperialism and, eventually, civic
strife.[28]

For Canadian historian Charles Norris Cochrane (18891945), Thucydides's

fastidious devotion to observable phenomena, focus on cause and effect, and
strict exclusion of other factors anticipates twentieth century scientific positivism.
Cochrane, the son of a physician, speculated that Thucydides generally (and
especially in describing the plague in Athens) was influenced by the methods and
thinking of early medical writers such as Hippocrates of Kos.[29]

After World War II, Classical scholar Jacqueline de Romilly pointed out that the
problem of Athenian imperialism was one of Thucydides's central preoccupations
and situated his history in the context of Greek thinking about international

politics. Since the appearance of her study, other scholars further examined
Thucydides's treatment of realpolitik.

More recently, scholars have questioned the perception of Thucydides as simply

"the father of realpolitik". Instead they have brought to the fore the literary
qualities of the History, which they see as belonging to narrative tradition of
Homer and Hesiod and as concerned with the concepts of justice and suffering
found in Plato and Aristotle and problematized in Aeschylus and Sophocles.[30]
Richard Ned Lebow terms Thucydides "the last of the tragedians", stating that
"Thucydides drew heavily on epic poetry and tragedy to construct his history,
which not surprisingly is also constructed as a narrative."[31] In this view, the
blind and immoderate behaviour of the Athenians (and indeed of all the other
actors), though perhaps intrinsic to human nature, ultimately leads to their
downfall. Thus his History could serve as a warning to future leaders to be more
prudent, by putting them on notice that someone would be scrutinizing their
actions with a historian's objectivity rather than a chronicler's flattery.[32]

Finally, the question has recently been raised as to whether Thucydides was not
greatly, if not fundamentally, concerned with the matter of religion. Contrary to
Herodotus, who portrays the gods as active agents in human affairs, Thucydides
attributes the existence of the divine entirely to the needs of political life. The
gods are seen as existing only in the minds of men. Religion as such reveals itself
in the History to be not simply one type of social behaviour among others, but
what permeates the whole of social existence, permitting the emergence of
justice.[33]
Thucydides versus Herodotus
Herodotus and Thucydides

Thucydides and his immediate predecessor Herodotus both exerted a significant

influence on Western historiography. Thucydides does not mention his
counterpart by name, but his famous introductory statement is thought to refer
to him:[34][35]

To hear this history rehearsed, for that there be inserted in it no fables,

shall be perhaps not delightful. But he that desires to look into the truth of things
done, and which (according to the condition of humanity) may be done again, or
at least their like, shall find enough herein to make him think it profitable. And it
is compiled rather for an everlasting possession than to be rehearsed for a prize.

Herodotus records in his Histories not only the events of the Persian Wars but also
geographical and ethnographical information, as well as the fables related to him
during his extensive travels. Typically, he passes no definitive judgment on what
he has heard. In the case of conflicting or unlikely accounts, he presents both
sides, says what he believes and then invites readers to decide for themselves.
[36] The work of Herodotus is reported to have been recited at festivals, where
prizes were awarded, as for example, during the games at Olympia.[37]

Herodotus views history as a source of moral lessons, with conflicts and wars as
misfortunes flowing from initial acts of injustice perpetuated through cycles of
revenge.[38] In contrast, Thucydides claims to confine himself to factual reports
of contemporary political and military events, based on unambiguous, first-hand,
eye-witness accounts,[39] although, unlike Herodotus, he does not reveal his
sources. Thucydides views life exclusively as political life, and history in terms of
political history. Conventional moral considerations play no role in his analysis of
political events while geographic and ethnographic aspects are omitted or, at
best, of secondary importance. Subsequent Greek historians such as Ctesias,
Diodorus, Strabo, Polybius and Plutarch held up Thucydides's writings as a
model of truthful history. Lucian[40] refers to Thucydides as having given Greek
historians their law, requiring them to say what had been done ( ).
Greek historians of the fourth century BC accepted that history was political and
that contemporary history was the proper domain of a historian.[41] Cicero calls
Herodotus the "father of history;"[42] yet the Greek writer Plutarch, in his Moralia
(Ethics) denigrated Herodotus, notably calling him a philobarbaros, a "barbarian
lover', to the detriment of the Greeks.[43] Unlike Thucydides, however, these
authors all continued to view history as a source of moral lessons.
Thomas Hobbes

Due to the loss of the ability to read Greek,[citation needed] Thucydides and
Herodotus were largely forgotten during the Middle Ages in Western Europe,
although their influence continued in the Byzantine world. In Europe, Herodotus
become known and highly respected only in the late-sixteenth and earlyseventeenth century as an ethnographer, in part due to the discovery of America,
where customs and animals were encountered even more surprising than what
he had related. During the Reformation, moreover, information about Middle
Eastern countries in the Histories provided a basis for establishing Biblical
chronology as advocated by Isaac Newton.

The first European translation of Thucydides (into Latin) was made by the
humanist Lorenzo Valla between 1448 and 1452, and the first Greek edition was
published by Aldo Manunzio in 1502. During the Renaissance, however,
Thucydides attracted less interest among Western European historians as a
political philosopher than his successor, Polybius,[44] although Poggio Bracciolini

claimed to have been influenced by him. There is not much trace of Thucydides's
influence in Niccol Machiavelli's The Prince (1513), which held that the chief aim
of a new prince must be to "maintain his state" [i.e., his power] and that in so
doing he is often compelled to act against faith, humanity and religion. Later
historians, such as J. B. Bury, however, have noted parallels between them:

If, instead of a history, Thucydides had written an analytical treatise on politics,

with particular reference to the Athenian empire, it is probable that . . . he could
have forestalled Machiavelli. . . .[since] the whole innuendo of the Thucydidean
treatment of history agrees with the fundamental postulate of Machiavelli, the
supremacy of reason of state. To maintain a state said the Florentine thinker, "a
statesman is often compelled to act against faith, humanity and religion." . . . But
. . . the true Machiavelli, not the Machiavelli of fable. . . entertained an ideal: Italy
for the Italians, Italy freed from the stranger: and in the service of this ideal he
desired to see his speculative science of politics applied. Thucydides has no
political aim in view: he was purely a historian. But it was part of the method of
both alike to eliminate conventional sentiment and morality.[45]

In the seventeenth century, the English political philosopher Thomas Hobbes,

whose Leviathan advocated absolute monarchy, admired Thucydides and in 1628
was the first to translate his writings into English directly from Greek. Thucydides,
Hobbes and Machiavelli are together considered the founding fathers of political
realism, according to which state policy must primarily or solely focus on the
need to maintain military and economic power rather than on ideals or ethics.
Nineteenth-century positivist historians stressed what they saw as Thucydides's
seriousness, his scientific objectivity and his advanced handling of evidence. A
virtual cult following developed among such German philosophers as Friedrich
Schelling, Friedrich Schlegel and Friedrich Nietzsche, who claimed that, "[in
Thucydides], the portrayer of man, that culture of the most impartial knowledge
of the world finds its last glorious flower." The late-18th century Swiss historian
Johannes von Mller described Thucydides as 'the favourite author of the greatest
and noblest men, and one of the best teachers of the wisdom of human life.' [46]
For Eduard Meyer, Macaulay and Leopold von Ranke, who initiated modern
source-based history writing,[47] Thucydides was again the model historian.[48]
[49]

Generals and statesmen loved him: the world he drew was theirs, an exclusive
power-brokers' club. It is no accident that even today Thucydides turns up as a
guiding spirit in military academies, neocon think tanks and the writings of men
like Henry Kissinger; whereas Herodotus has been the choice of imaginative
novelists (Michael Ondaatje's novel The English Patient and the film based on it
boosted the sale of the Histories to a wholly unforeseen degree) and as food
for a starved soul of an equally imaginative foreign correspondent from Iron
Curtain Poland, Ryszard Kapuscinski.[50]

These historians also admired Herodotus, however, as social and ethnographic

history increasingly came to be recognized as complementary to political history.
[51] In the twentieth century, this trend gave rise to the works of Johan Huizinga,
Marc Bloch and Braudel, who pioneered the study of long-term cultural and
economic developments and the patterns of everyday life. The Annales School,
which exemplifies this direction, has been viewed as extending the tradition of
Herodotus.[52]

At the same time, Thucydides's influence was increasingly important in the area
of international relations during the Cold War, through the work of Hans
Morgenthau, Leo Strauss[53] and Edward Carr.[54]

The tension between the Thucydidean and Herodotean traditions extends beyond
historical research. According to Irving Kristol, self-described founder of American
Neoconservatism, Thucydides wrote "the favorite neoconservative text on foreign
affairs";[55] and Thucydides is a required text at the Naval War College, an
American institution located in Rhode Island. On the other hand, Daniel
Mendelsohn, in a review of a recent edition of Herodotus, suggests that, at least
in his graduate school days during the Cold War, professing admiration of
Thucydides served as a form of self-presentation:

To be an admirer of Thucydides' History, with its deep cynicism about political,

rhetorical and ideological hypocrisy, with its all too recognizable protagonists a
liberal yet imperialistic democracy and an authoritarian oligarchy, engaged in a
war of attrition fought by proxy at the remote fringes of empire was to
advertise yourself as a hardheaded connoisseur of global Realpolitik.[56]

Another author, Thomas Geoghegan, whose speciality is labour rights, comes

down on the side of Herodotus when it comes to drawing lessons relevant to
Americans, who, he notes, tend to be rather isolationist in their habits (if not in
their political theorizing): "We should also spend more funds to get our young
people out of the library where they're reading Thucydides and get them to start
living like Herodotus going out and seeing the world."[57]
Quotations

"But, the bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is
before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet
it."[58]

"Right, as the world goes, is only in question between equals in power, while
the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must."[59] This
quotation is part of the Melian dialogue (Strassler 352/5.89).
"It is a general rule of human nature that people despise those who treat them
well, and look up to those who make no concessions."[60]
"In peace and prosperity states and individuals have better sentiments,
because they do not find themselves suddenly confronted with imperious
necessities; but war takes away the easy supply of daily wants and so proves a
rough master that brings most men's characters to a level with their fortunes"
(Strassler 199/3.82.2).
"The cause of all these evils was the lust for power arising from greed and
ambition; and from these passions proceeded the violence of parties once
engaged in contention."[61]
"So that, though overcome by three of the greatest things, honour, fear and
profit, we have both accepted the dominion delivered us and refuse again to
surrender it, we have therein done nothing to be wondered at nor beside the
manner of men."[62]
"Indeed men too often take upon themselves in the prosecution of their
revenge to set the example of doing away with those general laws to which all
can look for salvation in adversity, instead of allowing them to subsist against the
day of danger when their aid may be required" (Strassler 201/3.84.3).
"It is the habit of mankind to entrust to careless hope what they long for, and
to use sovereign reason to thrust aside what they do not desire" (Strassler
282/4.108.4).

A quotation frequently attributed to Thucydides but was in fact from Sir William
Francis Butler:[63]

"The nation that will insist upon drawing a broad line of demarcation between
the fighting man and the thinking man is liable to find its fighting done by fools
and its thinking by cowards."

More frequently, this quotation is truncated as follows:

"The State that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking
done by cowards and its fighting by fools."

Quotations about Thucydides

And after [the time of Herodotus], Thucydides, in my opinion, easily

vanquished all in the artfulness of his style: he so concentrates his copious
material that he almost matches the number of his words with the number of his
thoughts. In his words, further, he is so apposite and compressed that you do not
know whether his matter is being illuminated by his diction or his words by his
thoughts. (Cicero,De Oratore 2.56 (55 B.C.))

In the preface to his 1628 translation of Thucydides, entitled, Eight Bookes of the
Peloponesian Warres, political philosopher Thomas Hobbes calls Thucydides

"the most politic historiographer that ever wrote."

A hundred years later, philosopher David Hume, wrote that:

[T]he first page of Thucydides is, in my opinion, the commencement of real

history. All preceding narrations are so intermixed with fable, that philosophers
ought to abandon them to the embellishments of poets and orators. ("Of the
Populousness of Ancient Nations", 1742)

Friedrich Nietzsche wrote that the best antidotes for Platonism were to be found
in Thucydides:

"My recreation, my predilection, my cure, after all Platonism, has always been
Thucydides. Thucydides and perhaps Machiavelli's principe are most closely
related to me owing to the absolute determination which they show of refusing to
deceive themselves and of seeing reason in reality not in "rationality," and still
less in "morality." There is no more radical cure than Thucydides for the
lamentably rose-coloured idealisation of the Greeks... His writings must be
carefully studied line by line, and his unuttered thoughts must be read as
distinctly as what he actually says. There are few thinkers so rich in unuttered
thoughts... Thucydides is the great summing up, the final manifestation of that
strong, severe positivism which lay in the instincts of the ancient Hellene. After
all, it is courage in the face of reality that distinguishes such natures as
Thucydides from Plato: Plato is a coward in the face of reality consequently he
takes refuge in the ideal: Thucydides is a master of himself consequently he is
able to master life." (A Nietzsche Compendium, Twilight of the Idols, trans.
Anthony M. Ludovici)

W. H. Auden's poem, "September 1, 1939", written at the start of World War II,
contains these lines:

Exiled Thucydides knew

All that a speech can say
About Democracy,
And what dictators do,
The elderly rubbish they talk
To an apathetic grave;
Analysed all in his book,
The enlightenment driven away,
The habit-forming pain,
Mismanagement and grief:
We must suffer them all again.