In his History of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides includes a small but revealing note on methodology (1.21–22),1 which concludes as follows:
“It may be that the lack of a romantic element in my history will make it less of a pleasure to the ear: but I shall be content if it is judged useful by those who will want to have a clear understanding of what happened — and, such is the human condition, will happen again at some time in the same or a similar pattern. It was composed as a permanent legacy, not a showpiece for a single hearing.” (1.22)
Continue reading “O Miseras Hominum Mentes, O Pectora Caeca!”
- All quotes from Thucydides are quoted from: Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, trans. Martin Hammond (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009). ↩