history of the peloponnesian war sparknotes

Being an Athenian general in the war, Thucydides heard some of these speeches himself.

Of the speeches, the most famous is the funeral oration of Pericles, which is found in Book Two. These include addresses given to troops by their generals before battles and numerous political speeches, both by Athenian and Spartan leaders, as well as debates between various parties. While the inclusion of long first-person speeches is somewhat alien to modern historical method, in the context of ancient Greek oral culture speeches are expected. Thucydides also makes extensive use of speeches in order to elaborate on the event in question. This method contrasts sharply with Herodotus. Thucydides is one of the first western historians to employ a strict standard of chronology, recording events by year, with each year consisting of the summer campaign season and a less active winter season. Thucydides is considered to be one of the key figures in the development of Western history, thus making his methodology the subject of much analysis in area of historiography.

Connor, who describes Thucydides as 'an artist who responds to, selects and skillfully arranges his material, and develops its symbolic and emotional potential.' Historical method On the other hand, in keeping with more recent interpretations that are associated with reader-response criticism, the History can be read as a piece of literature rather than an objective record of the historical events. The judgment of Bury reflects this traditional interpretation of the History as 'severe in its detachment, written from a purely intellectual point of view, unencumbered with platitudes and moral judgments, cold and critical.'

Bury view the work as an objective and scientific piece of history. On the one hand, some scholars such as J. The History is divided into eight books.Īnalyses of the History generally occur in one of two camps. His account of the conflict is widely considered to be a classic and regarded as one of the earliest scholarly works of history. It was written by Thucydides, an Athenian historian who also served as an Athenian general during the war. The History of the Peloponnesian War is a historical account of the Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC), which was fought between the Peloponnesian League (led by Sparta) and the Delian League (led by Athens).

History of the peloponnesian war sparknotes