The Structure of Thucydides' History (Princeton Legacy Library, 563)

294 Pages·1981·13.155 MB·English

by  Hunter R. Rawlings III

THE STRUCTURE OF THUCYDIDES' HISTORY

THE STRUCTURE OF
THUCYDIDES' HISTORY
Hunter R. Rawlings in
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY PRESS
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY
Copyright © 1981 by Princeton University Press
Published by Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey
In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, Guildford, Surrey
All Bights Reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data will be found
on the last printed page of this book.
Publication of this book. was assisted by a grant from the
Publications Program of the National Endowment for the Humanities
This book has been composed in Linotype Granjon
Clothbound editions of Princeton University Press books'
are printed on acid-free paper, and binding materials are
chosen for strength and durability
Printed in the United States of America by Princeton
University Press, Princeton, New Jersey
For my parents

Contents
Preface ix
Note on References xi
Abbreviations xiii
ChapterI : The Two Ten-YearW ars 3
The historian'ss tructure 3
The war andi ts components 6
The archai of the two ten-year wars 13
The explicitc ontrasts otfh e two wars 45
Structure: implicict ontrast 5°
Literary composition 54
Chapter 11: Books é and vai s Introductions 58
The functiono f 6.1-6.93 58
The structureo f Books 1 andv i 62
The archaeologies 65
The alethestate prophasis 67
The two Atheniana ssemblies 70
Potidaea;t he Hermocopidae 77
The conferences aStp arta andS yracuse 80
Athensi n action: Pentecontaetiaa nd Sicilian venture 85
The digressions 90
The thirdc onferences 117
The speeches oPfe ricles andA lcibiades 122
CONTENTS
:11 1retpahC (cid:240)skooB dna VII : srae Ytsri FehT fo
eht dn asredae L;sraW smelborP 621
selcireP saici Ndna 721
Gnome susrev tyche 031
cilbuP susrev etavirp 531
hceep stceridn iehT dna 31. 2:rette leht 51-11. 7dna 041
dn a’selcireP tsa l’saiciN sehceeps 451
stnatabmo cehT ni eht owt dn asraw rieht ioport 161
retpahC skoo BV:I ni dna tVlIoIvIe: R dna
noituloveR 671
HIs kooB dna VIII 671
:stlove rehT dn aenelityM soihC 181
snatrap SehT dna modeerF "eht fo "skeer Geht 891
:snoitulove rehT dn aarycroC snehtA 702
"xi "skoo B V:retpahC dna nal P’sedidycuh T:"x" 612
natrapS soly P:sreff oecaep dna sucizyC 712
natrapS sadisar B:srednammoc rednasy Ldna 432
naile MehT st i:eugolaiD ecalp ni ’sedidycuhT nalp 342
l: VretpahC snoisulcno CemoS 052
ehcsiedidykuh teiD egarF 052
f ogninae mehT 422.1 452
ecneic s:yrotsiH tr adna 362
xednI 372
Preface
This book has been a long time in the making. In writing my
doctoral dissertation in 1969-70, I was struck by several corre­
spondences between Books I and VI of Thucydides. At the
time, I was concentrating my attention on the historian's pe­
culiar uses of prophasis, a term that recurs frequently in these
two books in his analyses of the causes of the Peloponnesian
War and of the Sicilian Expedition. It seemed to me that
Thucydides was, intentionally or not, drawing comparisons
and contrasts between the motivations leading to war in
Greece in Book I and to the invasion of Sicily in Book VI.
Though I alluded to some of these parallels, I did not explore
them to any significant extent (A Semantic Study of Prophasis
to 400 B.C., Hermes Einzelschriften, vol. 33 [Wiesbaden 1975],
97-103). A couple of years later I returned to this idea and, after
a preliminary review of the text, concluded that the notion of
parallelism between two parts of Thucydides' History might
repay further study. I was fortunate enough to spend the aca­
demic year 1975-76 as a Junior Fellow at the Center for Hel­
lenic Studies in Washington D.C., where I was able to conduct
the major part of the research for this book. In the Centers
superb library and working environment I composed the first
draft, part of which benefited from the helpful criticism of the
Director, Bernard M. W. Knox, and the other Junior Fellows.
I am most grateful for the opportunity to work in such a con­
genial and productive atmosphere.
To move from first to final draft has been a lengthy, but en-