How Did Thucydides Treat Sophocles

Thucydides began to positively treat Themistocles and commended him for numerous qualities. His true feelings towards Themistocles gradually appear throughout the remainder of book one. His pro-Themistocles bias also began to appear. For example, in section 74, Thucydides included a speech that named Themistocles the “ablest commander” of Athens (Thuc. 1.74). He did not have to include this part of the speech and could have just stated the name of the commander without including the praise. Much of the evidence of Thucydides’ positive feelings towards Themistocles arises from section 138 of book one. These positive feelings caused Thucydides to spend this entire section praising Themistocles. He started the sections by saying Themistocles had

Their feelings could be related to the time period they were writing in. For instance, Plutarch wrote about Themistocles over 500 years after Themistocles had died. By this point, people of the time were probably split on their feelings towards Themistocles, and Plutarch’s writing reflected this. Herodotus was pro-Athens, and by the time he wrote his Histories, it is likely Athens realized what Themistocles had done for them as a military leader was great, even if he had had some negative qualities. By the time Herodotus penned his Histories, it seems the Athenian people admired Themistocles again. If Athenians had not come to like Themistocles again, it is unlikely Herodotus would have praised his military success in fear of retaliation from the Athens population. Thucydides wrote about Themistocles during the Peloponnesian War and might have shown positive feelings to Themistocles because he believed commanders of the Peloponnesian War should become more like Themistocles. While Herodotus and Thucydides praised Themistocles for his ambitious nature that led to military success while Plutarch stated that Themistocles’s ambition led to his