Concept

Thucydides

Overview

Thucydides ( thew-SID-ih-deez; Ancient Greek: Θουκυδίδης, romanised: Thoukudídēs [tʰuːkydǐdɛːs]; c. 460 – c. 400 BC) was an Athenian historian and general. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of "scientific history" by those who accept his claims to have applied strict standards of impartiality and evidence-gathering and analysis of cause and effect, without reference to intervention by the gods, as outlined in his introduction to his work.

Thucydides has been called the father of the school of political realism, which views the political behaviour of individuals and the subsequent outcomes of relations between states as ultimately mediated by, and constructed upon, fear and self-interest. His text is still studied at universities and military colleges worldwide. The Melian dialogue is regarded as a seminal text of international relations theory, while his version of Pericles's Funeral Oration is widely studied by political theorists, historians, and students of the classics. More generally, Thucydides developed an understanding of human nature to explain behaviour in such crises as plagues, massacres, and wars.

Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).

In the original texts

Passages from public-domain books where Thucydides is discussed.

Greek philosophy is the decadence of the Greek instinct: 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 master of…
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, The Twilight of the Idols
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A saying also of Thucydides, the son of Melesias, stands on record, spoken by him by way of pleasantry upon Pericles's dexterity. Thucydides was one of the noble and distinguished citizens, and had been his greatest opponent; and, when Archidamus, the king of the Lacedaemonians, asked him whether he or Pericles were the better wrestler, he made…
Plutarch, Plutarch
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And that, for the time, Anaxagoras was much admired for his explanation by those that were present; and Lampon no less a little while after, when Thucydides was overpowered, and the whole affairs of the state and government came into the hands of Pericles.
Plutarch, The Boys' and Girls' Plutarch
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To my mind Thucydides is the true model of historians. He relates facts without giving his opinion; but he omits no circumstance adapted to make us judge for ourselves.
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile
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But what can be more insipid, more frivolous, or more puerile, than that very concinnity of expression which he actually acquired?"--"_But still we wish to resemble the Attic Speakers_."--"Do so, by all means. But were not those, then, true Attic Speakers, we have just been mentioning?"--"_Nobody denies it; and these are the men we imitate._"--"But how? when they are so very different, not only from each other, but…
Marcus Tullius Cicero, Cicero's Brutus or History of Famous Orators
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Thucydides

Overview

In the original texts

Philosophers who discussed Thucydides

Related ideas

Place in the tradition