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16. Thucydides

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Language and History in Ancient Greek Culture
This chapter is in the book Language and History in Ancient Greek Culture
16Thucydides*In an age which assumes that the biography of an author is indispensable for an understanding of his work, it is refreshing to fi nd Thucydides oblig-ing the reader by supplying all the information on his own life that he considers relevant for this purpose. What he volunteers is, from our point of view, sparse. It is confi ned to his opening statement (1.1.1) that he was an Athenian and began writing on the Peloponnesian War as soon as it it broke out in 431 b.c.e.; that he lived to see its end, that he was mature enough at the time to understand what was going on (5.26); that he was in Athens and affl icted by the plague in 429 (2.48.3); that he was a general in 424/3,serving in the vicinity of Thasos and Amphipolis (4.104.4), where he had some interest in gold mines, and thus considerable infl uence among the local upper classes (4.105.1); and that he spent twenty years in exile after his service at Amphipolis (5.26.5). We learn his father’s name, Olorus, only inci-dentally, when he identifi es himself by his full name in connection with his generalship (4.104.2). In short, Thucydides tells us just enough to establish his credentials as a historian—or more precisely: as an accurate reporter of the events of his own time—specifi cally because he personally experienced the Peloponnesian War in its entirety. We know the date of his birth only by inference from the date of his generalship: since it is likely that a general had to be at least thirty years of age at the time of his election, Thucydides cannot have been born later than 454. Similarly, he will have died after the end of the Peloponnesian War (404/3), since he tells us that he lived through the whole of it. For other data about his life—that he came from an aris-tocratic family related to that of Miltiades and Cimon, which had Thracian connections; and that he belonged to the deme Halimous (not far from the *This paper originally appeared as “Thucydide” in Le savoir grec: dictionnaire critique, ed. Jacques Braunschwig and Geoffrey E. R. Lloyd (Paris: Flammarion, 1996), trans. Catherine Porter et al. in Greek Thought: A Guide to Classical Knowledge(Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2000), 763–68, copyright (c) 2000 President and Fellows of Harvard College, reprinted by permission of Harvard University Press.

16Thucydides*In an age which assumes that the biography of an author is indispensable for an understanding of his work, it is refreshing to fi nd Thucydides oblig-ing the reader by supplying all the information on his own life that he considers relevant for this purpose. What he volunteers is, from our point of view, sparse. It is confi ned to his opening statement (1.1.1) that he was an Athenian and began writing on the Peloponnesian War as soon as it it broke out in 431 b.c.e.; that he lived to see its end, that he was mature enough at the time to understand what was going on (5.26); that he was in Athens and affl icted by the plague in 429 (2.48.3); that he was a general in 424/3,serving in the vicinity of Thasos and Amphipolis (4.104.4), where he had some interest in gold mines, and thus considerable infl uence among the local upper classes (4.105.1); and that he spent twenty years in exile after his service at Amphipolis (5.26.5). We learn his father’s name, Olorus, only inci-dentally, when he identifi es himself by his full name in connection with his generalship (4.104.2). In short, Thucydides tells us just enough to establish his credentials as a historian—or more precisely: as an accurate reporter of the events of his own time—specifi cally because he personally experienced the Peloponnesian War in its entirety. We know the date of his birth only by inference from the date of his generalship: since it is likely that a general had to be at least thirty years of age at the time of his election, Thucydides cannot have been born later than 454. Similarly, he will have died after the end of the Peloponnesian War (404/3), since he tells us that he lived through the whole of it. For other data about his life—that he came from an aris-tocratic family related to that of Miltiades and Cimon, which had Thracian connections; and that he belonged to the deme Halimous (not far from the *This paper originally appeared as “Thucydide” in Le savoir grec: dictionnaire critique, ed. Jacques Braunschwig and Geoffrey E. R. Lloyd (Paris: Flammarion, 1996), trans. Catherine Porter et al. in Greek Thought: A Guide to Classical Knowledge(Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2000), 763–68, copyright (c) 2000 President and Fellows of Harvard College, reprinted by permission of Harvard University Press.

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents v
  3. Introduction 1
  4. A. Political Culture of the Polis
  5. 1. Shares and Rights: “Citizenship” Greek Style and American Style 7
  6. 2. Isokratia as a Political Concept (Herodotus, 5.92α.1) 22
  7. 3. Oligarchy and Oligarchs in Ancient Greece 39
  8. 4. Stasis and Autonomia in Samos: A Comment on an Ideological Fallacy 52
  9. 5. Peace and War in Plato and Aristotle 69
  10. B. Nomos in Greek History and Thought
  11. 6. Pindar, Nomos, and Heracles (Pindar, frg. 169 [Snell] and POxy. No. 2450, frg. 1) 93
  12. 7. Was There a Concept Agraphos Nomos in Classical Greece? 125
  13. 8. Nomos and Physis in Antiphon’s Περί′Aληθείαϛ 158
  14. C. Constitutional and Political Institutions of Athens
  15. 9 Athenian Democracy – Reality or Illusion? 175
  16. 10. Public Expense: Whose Obligation? Athens 600–454 b.c.e. 191
  17. 11. Diodotus, Son of Eucrates 205
  18. 12. Athens and Chalkis: A Study in Imperial Control 214
  19. 13. The Areopagus in the Athenaion Politeia 230
  20. 14. The Sophists and Athenian Politics 245
  21. D. Literature and History
  22. 15. Herodotus and Athens 265
  23. 16. Thucydides 278
  24. Bibliography of Martin Ostwald 297
  25. English Index 301
  26. Greek Index 317
  27. Acknowledgments 323
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https://doi.org/10.9783/9780812206098.278

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents v
  3. Introduction 1
  4. A. Political Culture of the Polis
  5. 1. Shares and Rights: “Citizenship” Greek Style and American Style 7
  6. 2. Isokratia as a Political Concept (Herodotus, 5.92α.1) 22
  7. 3. Oligarchy and Oligarchs in Ancient Greece 39
  8. 4. Stasis and Autonomia in Samos: A Comment on an Ideological Fallacy 52
  9. 5. Peace and War in Plato and Aristotle 69
  10. B. Nomos in Greek History and Thought
  11. 6. Pindar, Nomos, and Heracles (Pindar, frg. 169 [Snell] and POxy. No. 2450, frg. 1) 93
  12. 7. Was There a Concept Agraphos Nomos in Classical Greece? 125
  13. 8. Nomos and Physis in Antiphon’s Περί′Aληθείαϛ 158
  14. C. Constitutional and Political Institutions of Athens
  15. 9 Athenian Democracy – Reality or Illusion? 175
  16. 10. Public Expense: Whose Obligation? Athens 600–454 b.c.e. 191
  17. 11. Diodotus, Son of Eucrates 205
  18. 12. Athens and Chalkis: A Study in Imperial Control 214
  19. 13. The Areopagus in the Athenaion Politeia 230
  20. 14. The Sophists and Athenian Politics 245
  21. D. Literature and History
  22. 15. Herodotus and Athens 265
  23. 16. Thucydides 278
  24. Bibliography of Martin Ostwald 297
  25. English Index 301
  26. Greek Index 317
  27. Acknowledgments 323
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