Yet if they are judged useful by any who wish to look at the plain truth about both past events and those that at some future time, in accordance to human nature, will recur in similar or comparable ways, that will suffice.Īs a high-ranking Athenian military commander (or “strategos”), Thucydides brought to the project firsthand experience of the war, as well as an acute understanding of the complex power politics behind events on the battlefield. He set the bar and set it high:Īnd the results, by avoiding patriotic storytelling, will perhaps seem the less enjoyable for listening. Needless to say, Thucydides was convinced that he himself offered a far superior product. While never once referring to him by name, Thucydides accused Herodotus of fabulation, storytelling, and a writing style that pandered to his immediate audience. His history includes several direct and indirect attacks on his immediate predecessors, most notably on Homer and Herodotus. His thoroughness, sharpness, and matter-of-fact analysis have led some people to believe that he, and not fellow historian Herodotus, deserves the title “father of history”. In Thucydides, the war found an author of meticulous standard and dedication who created a work that still resonates in the disciplines of history, international relations, and political science. A fragment of the fourth book of the History of the Peloponnesian War.

A history of the peloponnesian war