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8 - Labouring for Truth in Thucydides

from Part I - Context and Method

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 March 2023

By
Elizabeth Irwin
Edited by
Polly Low
Polly Low
Affiliation:
University of Durham
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Summary

Thucydides emphasizes the labour that he has put into creating his History, but this is a text that also requires labour from its readers if they are to uncover the truth about past events. This chapter explores what that process of uncovering the truth might look like using as case studies Thucydides’ account of the growth of Athenian imperial power in Book 1 and his narrative of the plague in Book 2. Finally, the chapter addresses the question of why Thucydides might have adopted this approach to writing and presenting his History.

Keywords

historiographyauthorityPentecontaetiaempireplague
Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge Companion to Thucydides , pp. 110 - 126
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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