How Did Thucydides Become Successful?

While reading the History of the Peloponnesian War, it is not hard to see how so many scholars have attributed the work of Thucydides as swift, deep and attentive to detail; one gets the feeling that you are reading the words of a well rounded and inspiring scholar who is only interested in a realist recording the truth as it unfolds in front of him. (Welch 2003) Thucydides offers a history that will be of use to those who seek, “An exact aid to the past to better aid the future. I have written my work not as an essay which is to win the applause of the moment, but as a possession for all time.” However, some scholars have argued that there is mistreatment of Thucydides work that stretched into modern international relations arguments, this

(Gomme 1930) In fact, Thucydides aimed to adapt the methods and principles of Hippocratic medicine to the analysis and recording of history by, “carefully observing, testing and recording of facts before generalization.” (Gomme 1930) However, scientific history has to be limited in the regard that the observation of facts has to be deemed, “useful” by the recorder therefore there is room for bias when deciding what to deem useful or unrelated. The bare attempt of recording history with a scientific mindset is no small feat - as Aristotle said, “ the state comes into existence to satisfy the bare needs of life, and continues for the sake of a good life,” implies that this mindset begins in the mind of a scientist but ends as a philosopher. (Gomme 1930) To further exemplify this point, “the state comes into existence to satisfy the bare needs of life” could refer to the scientist’s responsibility to look at things objectively that derives from the observation of facts where it is the historian’s obligation to observe the breakdown of the “good life” in the state. (Gomme 1930) However, his work must have caught the eye of Xenophon because his Hellenika was created as a continuation of

(Packard 1873) When compared to others, Thucydides account of the plague that struck Athens during the second and third years of the war is very similar; this credits his ability to record things in an objective and scientific way. (Gomme 1930) However, one cannot ignore that Thucydides was a general in the Athenian military and, “with the failure to prevent the capture of Amphipolis by Brasidas led to his being an exile from his home for twenty years.” During his exile, he wrote the History of the Polypanesian War, there is evidence that suggests that his exile was not voluntary. (Gomme 1930) If Thucydides was exiled by force, one can consider that this had an impact on his work over the twenty-year period of his exile - what part of the History was recorded and which part was revised after the fact? Thucydides had a yearning to teach future generations engaged in wars (Packard 1873), could this cause a conflict with the desire for historians to tell the truth? These are questions one must ask when searching for the truth