Thucydides
Forfatter af The History of the Peloponnesian War
Om forfatteren
Born into a family of Athens's old nobility claiming descent from the Homeric hero Ajax of Salamis, Thucydides pursued a political career under Pericles and served as a general in the Great Peloponnesian War of 431--404 b.c. His subsequent exile for failure to prevent a Spartan takeover of an vis mere Athenian colony in Thrace enabled him to observe the war from both sides. In his history of the war, he examines the policies and motives of the people involved with a calculated rationality that nevertheless conveys great passion. Although his narrative style is lucid and astringent, the language of the speeches that he gives his protagonists is some of the most difficult, yet rhetorically powerful, Greek from any period of antiquity. The work is deeply serious in tone. As Thucydides tells his readers at the beginning of the work, it contains nothing of entertainment value. He meant it, as he says, to be not simply a set-piece written for the delectation of an audience, but a "possession for ever." As Herodotus was the inventor of universal history, Thucydides was the inventor of the analytical historical monograph. He wrote in conscious contrast to Herodotus, whose work is full of entertaining fable and romance. While Herodotus wrote about the past by using all manner of traditions gleaned in his travels, Thucydides considered only contemporary history to be reliable and writes as an interrogator and witness of contemporary men and events. The gods, too, are absent from Thucydides's work, which scrutinizes human motivations as the exclusive business of history. The most powerful intellectual influences visible are the fully rational method of description and prognosis developed by the Hippocratic physicians and the tools of logical analysis and verbal argument then being forged by the Sophists. Behind these, however, lay a sense of tragedy. The history of Thucydides possesses the rhythm of a Sophoclean drama of reversal of fortune in which Athens falls from the pinnacle of imperial success and brilliance into political corruption, ruthless and amoral imperial aggression, and finally utter defeat and disaster. Athens's imperial hubris leads to its nemesis at the hands of Sparta, a conservative and landlocked state that had been powerless at the beginning of the war to inflict significant harm on the Athenians. Thucydides's work is unfinished. It ends abruptly in midsentence during a discussion of the events of the year 411 b.c. It was continued to the end of the war by Xenophon. Although very much the intellectual inferior of Thucydides, Xenophon managed by imitation to infuse this part of his Hellenica (his continuation to 362 b.c. of the history of Thucydides) with an elevation absent in the rest of his work. Until relatively recently, scholars took Thucydides at his word as an objective writer. More recently it has been recognized that his work skillfully promotes a patriotic and political argument, written in the climate of postwar recriminations. He presents Athens's empire as a natural consequence of the position of that city-state in the Greek world and the Athenian leader Pericles as Athens's greatest statesman, a leader who had governed Athens and preserved the empire with a firm and intelligent hand. Thucydides wanted to persuade his readers that Pericles was not the villain who destroyed Athens, that the blame fell to the politicians who came after him and pandered to the most extreme ambitious of the common citizens, the politicians who were the ultimate arbiters of policy in Athens's democracy. Some modern historians remain persuaded by Thucydides's portrait of Pericles and the Athenian democracy, but others argue from Thucydides's own testimony that Pericles led Athens into an unnecessary war in the belief that the opportunity had arrived to advance Athenian domination over the whole of the Greek world. (Bowker Author Biography) vis mindre
Image credit: Bust of Thucydides, Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto
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Værker af Thucydides
On Justice, Power and Human Nature: Selections from The History of the Peloponnesian War: Essence of Thucydides'… (1993) 397 eksemplarer
Thucydides: The War of the Peloponnesians and the Athenians (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought) (2013) 56 eksemplarer
The History of the Peloponnesian War, Book 1 20 eksemplarer
A Greek Prose Reading Course for Post-beginners 4: Historiography: Thucydides: Events at Pylos and Sphacteria (1998) 17 eksemplarer
Thucydides: The Peloponnesian War. Translated by Benjamin Jowett / Revised and Abridged with an Introduction by P. A.… (1963) 15 eksemplarer
The Peloponnesian War [selections] (Great Books Foundation) 14 eksemplarer
Athenian Disaster in Sicily 9 eksemplarer
The History of the Peloponnesian War, Book 5 7 eksemplarer
HISTÒRIA DE LA GUERRA DEL PELOPONÉS - LLIBRE II 6 eksemplarer
Pericles's Funeral Oration [Greek] 6 eksemplarer
The Essential Thucydides: On Justice, Power, and Human Nature: Selections from The History of the Peloponnesian War (2021) 6 eksemplarer
Thucydides' Theory of International Relations: A Lasting Possession (Political Traditions in Foreign Policy) (2000) 5 eksemplarer
Thucydides, Book 5 5 eksemplarer
The History of the Peloponnesian War, Book 4 4 eksemplarer
The English works of Thomas Hobbes of Malmesbury 3 eksemplarer
Ιστορίαι: Πελοποννησιακός πόλεμος 3 eksemplarer
Thucydides: History of the Peloponnesian War Books VI and VII: A Companion to the Penguin Translation (Classical… (1998) 3 eksemplarer
Thoukudidou Xungraphes 4 = The fourth book of Thucydides 2 eksemplarer
The History of the Peloponnesian War, Book 6 2 eksemplarer
Thucydides II (LCL 109) 2 eksemplarer
Thucydides, book 3 2 eksemplarer
La grande dune 2 eksemplarer
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Thucydides III @Book III 2 eksemplarer
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La guerra del Peloponneso vol I 1 eksemplar
Història de la Guerra del Peloponés Volum III 1 eksemplar
Le storie. vol. 2 1 eksemplar
The Funeral Oration of Pericles 1 eksemplar
Die Heerfahrt der Athener nach Sizilien 1 eksemplar
Thucydides' history of the Peloponnesian war 1 eksemplar
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The History of the Peloponnesian War, Books 4-5 1 eksemplar
Sull'arte equestre 1 eksemplar
Guerre du Péloponèse suivi de Retraite des Dix Mille, La Cyropédie, Du commandement de la cavalerie, Traité… 1 eksemplar
Thucydides, Volume IV: History of the Peloponnesian War, Books VII and VIII: English Text 1 eksemplar
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Politische Reden 1 eksemplar
Anabasi (libri quarto e settimo) 1 eksemplar
The History of the Peloponnesian War, Books 1-7 1 eksemplar
La guerra del Peloponeso II 1 eksemplar
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Història de la guerra del Peloponès, vol. 4 1 eksemplar
Història de la guerra del Peloponès, vol. 3 1 eksemplar
Història de la guerra del Peloponès, vol. 2 1 eksemplar
Història de la guerra del Peloponès, vol. 1 1 eksemplar
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Història de la guerra del Peloponès, V 1 eksemplar
Història de la guerra del peloponès, III 1 eksemplar
The History of the Peloponnesian War, Book 2 1 eksemplar
Economico 1 eksemplar
La Guerre du Péloponnèse (French Edition) 1 eksemplar
Thucydides book 7 1 eksemplar
Thucydides ; the complete Hobbes translation, with notes and a new introduction by David Grene. 1 eksemplar
Thucydides, book III. Ed. by E.C. Marchant . 1 eksemplar
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Thucydides, Book VI. Edited by K.J. Dover. 1 eksemplar
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The History of the Peloponnesian War, Books 2-3 1 eksemplar
Thucydides Bk II 1 eksemplar
Thucydides Bk III 1 eksemplar
Thucydides Bk IV 1 eksemplar
Thucydides Bk VI 1 eksemplar
Thucydides Bk VII 1 eksemplar
Thukydidu syngraphē Mit erklärenden Anmerkungen 1 eksemplar
Thucydides, book I-VII 1 eksemplar
Thucydidis Historiae. 2, Libri 5 - 8 1 eksemplar
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Thucydides: The Complete Writings of 1 eksemplar
Thucydides I & VII (2 vois.) 1 eksemplar
Thucydides, books II and III 1 eksemplar
Thukydides V 1 eksemplar
Ho tu Thukydidu polemos peloponnēsiakos. Thucydidis bellum Peloponnesiacum ex edit. Wassii et Dukeri 7 [...] 1 eksemplar
Thukydides IV 1 eksemplar
Thukydides III 1 eksemplar
Thukydides II 1 eksemplar
Speeches from Thucydides 1 eksemplar
Thoukydidēs 1 eksemplar
La guerra del Peloponneso volume secondo 1 eksemplar
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Thucydides, Vol II. 1 eksemplar
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Thucydides : with an English translation 1 eksemplar
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Thucydides in Four Volumes 1 eksemplar
THUCYDIDES. 1 eksemplar
Thucydides Book II 1 eksemplar
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Historiarum capita selecta 1 eksemplar
The historians of Greece 1 eksemplar
Thucydides- Volume 1, books 1-3 1 eksemplar
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Thucydides Book 2 1 eksemplar
Codex Palatinus Heidelbergensis Graecus 252 1 eksemplar
Associated Works
Satte nøgleord på
Almen Viden
- Kanonisk navn
- Tucídides
- Juridisk navn
- Θουκυδίδης Ολόρου Αθηναίος (Ancient Greek)
- Fødselsdato
- 0460 BCE (circa)
- Dødsdag
- 0395 BCE (circa)
- Køn
- male
- Nationalitet
- Athens
- Land (til kort)
- Greece
- Fødested
- Athens, Greece
- Dødssted
- Athens, Greece
- Bopæl
- Athens, Greece
Thrace - Erhverv
- general
historian
Medlemmer
Discussions
OT for GMacAree i Fine Press Forum (november 2023)
New LE: Thucydides The Peloponnesian War i Folio Society Devotees (juli 2023)
Thucydides i Ancient History (december 2021)
Group read - Thucydides' The Peloponnesian War i The 11 in 11 Category Challenge (december 2010)
Translating Thucydides i Ancient History (november 2010)
Herodotus vs. Thucydides i Ancient History (marts 2007)
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This was not an easy read. A lot of towns, names and all in all it was often a blur. I did enjoy some points made in debates and the discussions on oligarchy, democracy, and constitution. I think this might be a reference book but not something I would want to read cover to cover again.