What Did Thucydides Write?

One of the greatest ancient historians, Thucydides (c. 460 B.C.–c. 400 B.C.) chronicled nearly 30 years of war and tension between Athens and Sparta. His “History of the Peloponnesian War” set a standard for scope, concision and accuracy that makes it a defining text of the historical genre.

Did Thucydides write anything?

Thucydides, an Athenian, wrote the history of the war between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians, beginning at the moment that it broke out, and believing that it would be a great war, and more worthy of relation than any that had preceded it.

What Thucydides wrote about?

Thucydides wrote about the civil war between Athens and Sparta. Together these ancient Greek writers became the first true historians in Western civilization. We know little about the personal life of Herodotus.

When did Thucydides write the history?

Thucydides (c. 460/455 – 399/398 BCE) was an Athenian general who wrote the contemporary History of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta, which lasted from 431 BCE to 404 BCE. However, Thucydides’ History was never finished, and as such, ends mid-sentence in the winter of 411 BCE.

Did Thucydides write about the plague?

About 270 years after the Iliad, or thereabouts, plague is the centrepiece of two great classical Athenian works – Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, and Book 2 of Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides’ description of the plague that struck Athens in 430 BC is one of the great passages of Greek literature.

What was Thucydides known for?

One of the greatest ancient historians, Thucydides (c. 460 B.C.–c. 400 B.C.) chronicled nearly 30 years of war and tension between Athens and Sparta. His “History of the Peloponnesian War” set a standard for scope, concision and accuracy that makes it a defining text of the historical genre.

When did Thucydides write Pericles funeral oration?

In 431, shortly after the Peloponnesian War had broken out, Pericles delivered his famous Funeral Oration to commemorate those troops who had already fallen in battle.

How does Thucydides describe Pericles?

Thucydides (the historian), an admirer of Pericles, maintains that Athens was “in name a democracy but, in fact, governed by its first citizen “. Through this comment, the historian illustrates what he perceives as Pericles’ charisma to lead, convince and, sometimes, to manipulate.

What did Thucydides think was the reason for war between Athens and Sparta?

According to Thucydides, the growth of Athens’s ‘power and the alarm which this inspired in Lacedaemon (Sparta) made war inevitable.” Thucydides believed that the Peloponnesian War was inevitable because when a rising power confronted another power, they would inevitably wage war against each other to further or

Who wrote about the Persian wars?

Herodotus, the great Greek historian, was born about 484 BCE at Halicarnassus in Caria, Asia Minor, when it was subject to the Persians.

Who coined the term Thucydides Trap?

The term is based on a quote by ancient Athenian historian and military general Thucydides, which posited that the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta had been inevitable because of Spartan fears of the growth of Athenian power.

What plague did Thucydides write about?

Among the most famous parts of Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War is his account of the plague that killed nearly a third of the Athenian population in the summer of 430 and caused greater loss of human life than the rest of the Archidamian War.

What lessons do you think Thucydides wants us to draw from the experience?

22 Life Lessons From Thucydides

• History is philosophy teaching by examples.
• Write for future generations.
• Tyrannies are born from love of wealth.
• Don’t do injustice to those who are weaker to you.
• Self-control.
• The past will help us today.
• Double-down on our hustle.
• Don’t just say ‘yes’ without thinking.

Why did Thucydides write about the plague?

The Plague of Athens is treated by Thucydides in the same way as the war with careful attention to the recording of empirical detail without suggesting any reasons for the epidemic. His purpose is entirely instructive in the hope that future generations would be able to learn from the lessons of the past.