Question

Describe Thucydides’ approach to doing history. In your analysis, cite at least 3 specific things the historian himself mentions.

Answer 1

• Thucydides, who strove for objectivity, wrote about political and military events that occurred during his lifetime, with a close account of the war between Athens and Sparta in late fifth century BC. Thucydides' history of The Peloponnesian War is the composition of an astute political and military historian. In a disciplined and methodical style, his work analyzes issues related to the wars, with little digression into other areas.
• Thucydides, who presented history in context, focusing on political and military facts and events of his times, has been credited with writing the original “scientific” history.
• Thucydides' historical method is based on precise, verifiable evidence and reflects a systematic understanding of the human and military politics. He devoted most of his adult life to the chronicles of the Peloponnesian War and sought all available evidence, in the form of written documents and eyewitness reports, to construct his account.
• Thucydides offers rational explanations as evidence for his claims and for the causes of later events that could be reasonably expected on the basis of that evidence. For example, Thucydides attempts to justify the authoritative claim made in the introduction about the Peloponnesian war - that had just started - being more important than the wars before it - a real turning point in history.
• Thucydides uses a scientific, inductive method of inquiry to construct his theory of history. He considers the actual events, examines the constraints and options available to the protagonists, and then searches for possible consequences of the events in order to speculate about the causes of the initial event.
• Thucydides dramatizes history through speeches put directly in the mouths of those who need never have spoken them.
• "The absence of fable in the History," he says, "will perhaps make it less attractive to hearers; but it will be enough if it is found profitable by those who desire an exact knowledge of the past as a key to the future, which in all human probability will repeat or resemble the past.