Talk:History of the Peloponnesian War

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"... Thucydides aimed to provide an accurate and detailed account, thoroughly citing his sources whenever he could not provide a first-hand account."

This statement is not entirely accurate. While Thucydides did go out of his way to provide accurate and detailed first-hand accounts (unlike historians before him or for a long time after him), he more often than not provided no direct attributions of his sources, instead relying on generic eyewtiness testimonies (usually combined from several witnesses). His use of written documentation is sparse and pretty much never cited, and there has been some contention over his reworking and abridging of the speeches he presents throughout his history.

Of course all this is based on modern standards, and for someone writing a history in the fifth century BCE, his methods were hundreds and hundreds of years beyond his time.

The article's "thoroughly" leaves a little wiggle room, but is perhaps too strong. Even so, a statement like "more often not provided no direct attributions" should itself have a supporting authority. Also, this article would greatly benefit from references to a couple of the important survey articles on the historiography of the History. Stan 05:48, 15 Jun 2004 (UTC)

The only source Thucydides cites for anything is Homer, who gets mentioned several times in book one. Nothing else gets cited. Herodotus actually has a better record for sources, since he quotes numerous poets as evidence for events long before his time. I can only assume the people working on this have not actually read Thucydides.68.118.61.219 23:57, 31 Mar 2005 (UTC)

Please don't be insulting. Stan 01:09, 2 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Why do we have synopses for chapters? The text of this article (and others) refer to Books.Lisiate 04:09, 22 Jun 2005 (UTC)

1 subject headings
2 Section Entitled "The Role of Religion"
3 Image
4 efa

[edit] subject headings

This article was in serious need of organization, so I've added subject headings. Obviously there needs to be some more organization and certainly expansion/referencing (citation of sources) of these sections, but at least there is something of a framework to work on. Jim 18:52, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Section Entitled "The Role of Religion"

I have once deleted the link to free will since it is idiosyncratic and not realy essential to understanding the History. It was returned. Any objections to removing it again?Jim

It's significatn, but I'm not sure it merits its own section . . . UnDeadGoat 23:26, 18 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Image

I have restored the image of the tenth-century Manuscript. The manuscript is obviously public domain, but so is the book, E.M. Thompson's Introduction to Greek and Latin Palaeography, OUP 1912.