The Politics of the Historian Thucydides

Abstract

THUCYDIDES son of Oloros, I imagine, has enjoyed, during this past generation, a wider reading public than any other ancient historian.' He has been the subject of several books and numerous articles. He has been recommended as required reading by Elmer Davis and General George Marshall. To the classical ear, the tone of the speeches, especially those of Perikles, has been reproduced, whether consciously or not, by a Prime Minister of Great Britain and a President of the United States. The reasons for this persistent popularity are significant and easy to isolate. Of the events of his own time Thucydides writes: So long as human nature remains what it is, situations like this, or very nearly like this, will someday recur.2 He was a citizen of a democratic state involved in a world crisis. His fellow-citizens, the Athenians, were as intellectually active, as politically vigorous a people as we have known, savouring to the full that atmosphere of dissent that we ourselves associate, at least in theory, with democracy. In Thucydides we have the testimony of an acute and competent intellectual, who embodied the qualities of Perikles' ideal citizen, the politikos. In addition, he was a painstakingly honest researcher and meticulously determined to avoid bias.