Thucydides History of the Peloponnesian War was a major
innovation in the recounting of the past. Rather than telling stories for
entertainment or mythological reasons, Thucydides tried to analyse the
past and form a coherent narrative. To do this required coming to
grips with less than perfect source material. Thucydides discusses his
solution.
With reference to the speeches in this history, some were delivered
before the war began, others while it was going on; some I heard myself,
others I got from various quarters; it was in all cases difficult to carry
them word for word in one's memory, so my habit has been to make the speakers
say what was in my opinion demanded of them by the various occasions, of
course adhering as closely as possible to the general sense of what they
really said. And with reference to the narrative of events, far from permitting
myself to derive it from the first source that came to hand, I did not
even trust my own impressions, but it rests partly on what I saw myself,
partly on what others saw for me, the accuracy of the report being always
tried by the most severe and detailed tests possible. My conclusions have
cost me some labour from the want of coincidence between accounts of the
same occurrences by different eye-witnesses, arising sometimes from imperfect
memory, sometimes from undue partiality for one side or the other. The
absence of romance in my history will, I fear, detract somewhat from its
interest; but if it be judged useful by those inquirers who desire an exact
knowledge of the past as an aid to the interpretation of the future, which
in the course of human things must resemble if it does not reflect it,
I shall be content. In fine, I have written my work, not as an essay which
is to win the applause of the moment, but as a possession for all time.
This text is part of the Internet
Modern History Sourcebook. The Sourcebook is a collection of public
domain and copy-permitted texts for introductory level classes in modern
European and World history.
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(c)Paul Halsall, April 1998
