CLA 2100	Lecture Eleven: City States and War: Thucydides on the Peloponnesian War.
Mainpage Syllabus Calendar

• Thucydides circa 460/5-399
  • plague victim c. 430/27
  • Strategos 424
  • failure at Amphipolis
  • twenty years of exile
  • return to Athens
• His history
  • "A possession for all time"
  • 8 books (last unfinished)
  • division into summer & winter
  • dispassionate, but objective?
  • search for human, not divine, causation
  • the problem of the many speeches
  • method?
• Thucydides on the Causes of the Peloponnesian War
  • immediate cause?
  • real cause (according to Thucydides)?
• The Funeral Speech of Pericles
• The Plague
• The Mytilenian Debate

Essays

• Compare Thucydides' method of writing history with Herodotus'. Who is more "scientific," more "objective"? Why?
• Review the main points of Pericles' funeral speech. In your opinion, does Pericles outline an ideal democracy? Why or why not?
• Does Thucydides' description of the plague at Athens reflect his assessment of the moral effects of war? Please elaborate.
• What were the issues of the Mytilenians debate? On what basis did Athens decide finally to spare the Mytlenians? Do you find the Athenians admirable or horrifying for arguing on the basis that they did? Please explain.