Thucydides and The Peloponnesian War ( 431 to 404 B.C. )

1. Thucydidesand The Peloponnesian War(431 to 404 B.C. ) Lecturer: Wu Shiyu Email: shiyuw@sjtu.edu.cn http://sla.sjtu.edu.cn/bbs

2. 1. Products in the Age of Pericles

4. Phidias Showing the Frieze of the Parthenon to his Friends

5. The Acropolis of Athens

6. 1. In the Age of Pericles • This first democracy in history gave birth to the liberal arts (learning suited to a free individual as defined by Aristotle). • Products of the tolerance and freedom of thought and speech

7. Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War.

8. 2.1 Thucydides and History • A product of the Athenian democracy • History grew in the Athenian democracy, as a means of educating from the lessons of the past. • It is no coincidence that our first true history of Herodotus, although written by a non-Athenian, was written for Athenian audience, and first narrated to them. • The second of the great historian of the history is Thucydides.

9. 2.1 Thucydides and History • He is an Athenian citizen (460～400B.C.). • And his history, immortal pages describing the Peloponnesian War, still as timely and as vivid today, as when they were first written.

10. Thucydides (460～400B.C.).

11. Thucydides

12. Herodotus

13. 2.1 Thucydides and History • Thucydides was born to a wealthy family. He was a partisan of Pericles; he is a tremendous admirer of Pericles. • As a youth, we are told, Thucydides heard a reading of Herodotus history at the Olympic Games, and he was moved to tears.

14. 2.1 Thucydides and History • 他生活的时代正值雅典的极盛时期，也是古希腊文化的全盛时期。伯里克利等人的政治演说，埃斯库罗斯、欧里彼德斯、索福克利斯等人的戏剧，诡辩派(又称“智者派”)的哲学，希罗多德等人的历史著作，以及“医学之父”希波格拉底所代表的“实验的”“科学”精神，都对他产生了极大的影响。成年以后，他也像大多数贵族子弟一样，凭借家族的门第和个人的才干而步入仕途。

15. 2.1 Thucydides and History • In 424, elected general, one of the ten generals for the year, and he was entrusted with an extremely important command in the northeastern part of Greece, around the city of Amphipolis, • Amphipolis, an Athenian stronghold, absolutely essential to protect the Athenian grain supply from the Black Sea, its gold very important to the Athenian economy. • Assaulted by a Spartan force on the wintry winter night, a cold and stormy night, they seized the bridge;

17. 2.1 Thucydides and History • Thucydides came as quickly as he could, but too late to prevent the capture of the city. • Thucydides was exiled, extraordinarily harsh exile, not a ten-year ostracism(the charge treason). • But that exile permitted Thucydides to travel throughout the Greek world during the war, collecting material, interviewing eyewitnesses of the War.

18. 2.1 Thucydides and History • ▲《伯罗奔尼撒战争史》是修昔底德在自己亲身感受的基础上、依靠敏锐的观察力、发挥了卓越的写作才能之后才完成的。这部著作体大思精、前后一贯，是预先订好写作计划之后一气呵成的。因此各个部分上下衔接、首尾相连，其间有严密的逻辑性。

19. 2.5 His Prediction of the P War • Thucydides began to collect material for his history at his very outbreak of the war, and he was convinced that it would be the greatest war in history. • “It was going to be a major war and that it would be more deserving of renown than any previous war.” • He understood that it would be a long war, unlike most politicians, and he understood that it would stretch the limits of both combatants, Athens and Sparta, to their utmost.

20. 2.5 His Prediction of the P War • 修昔底德的写作冲动，来自他对伯罗奔尼撒战争的深刻认识。正如他在书中所说的那样：“在这次战争刚刚爆发的时候，我就开始写这部历史著作，相信这次战争是一个伟大的战争，比过去曾经发生过的任何一次战争都更有记载的价值。我的这种信念是依据下列事实得来的：双方都竭尽全力来备战；同时我看到希腊世界中其余的国家，不是参加了这一边，就是参加了那一边；即使那些目前还没有参战的国家，也正在准备参战。这是希腊人历史上最严重的一次大动乱，同时也波及到大部分非希腊人的地区，可以说，几乎全人类都将蒙受其影响……。”

21. 2.6 Causes of the War in his Eye • He also understood the importance of economics to history. • As economies grew stronger, as the commerce and trade grew stronger, nations grew stronger. • And so he understood the interconnection between economics and political power. • He understood that economics were important motivating force for this war.

22. Herodotus(484 ～425 B.C.) & Herodotus(460～400B.C.) At first glance, rather different as we read the two. Herodotus, on first reading, appears to be a garrulous (饶舌的 ) story teller. There is little of a story teller on the somber pages of Thucydides. Thucydides is the scientific historian. There is little of a story teller on the somber(朴实无华的)pages of Thucydides. 2.2 Thucydides and Herodotus

23. 2.2 Thucydides and Herodotus • 修昔底德不失为古希腊杰出的历史学家，他的《伯罗奔尼撒战争史》仍然是西方史学史上的重要里程碑。有人曾评论道：“尽管修昔底德比希罗多德只晚生了25年，但他们两人对历史的理解却大不相同；从希罗多德到修昔底德，史学几乎要进步一个世纪。”这是对修昔底德史学成就的高度评价。

24. 2.2 Thucydides and Herodotus • Herodotus always has the Gods coming in, intervening, takes oracles very very seriously. • The Gods play no factual role in the history of Thucydides. He recalls from time to time an oracle, because men act on the basis of such oracles. But the Gods do not influence the course of history in the mind of Thucydides.

25. 2.2 Thucydides and Herodotus • Upon deep examination, both historians are profoundly concerned with the moral dimension of history, both Thucydides and Herodotus write out of the conviction that not only do we learn from history, but also that actions have moral consequences, and these moral consequences do work through history.

26. 2.2 Thucydides and Herodotus • 另外，修昔底德与希罗多德在描述雅典民主政治时的情绪和角度也是不同的。希罗多德把雅典的民主政治视为雅典之所以能在希波战争中取胜的基本原因；他对雅典民主政治的颂扬，是与他对专制统治和独裁政治的批判联系在一起的；他在描述雅典的民主政治时，充满了一种自豪、昂扬的情绪。修昔底德对雅典民主政治的颂扬，恰恰反衬出那几个为了自己的私利而使整个希腊民族卷入战火灾难的政客们的可恶，反衬出使这种制度遭受破坏的伯罗奔尼撒战争的可悲，反衬出人们对这种美好制度遭受破坏之后的痛惜。

27. 2.2 Thucydides and Herodotus • ▲修昔底德的这种情绪，使得他在写作手法上也独具特色。他用简练的文笔、精确的词句，通过冷峻、朴实的具体叙述，抒发了自己那种悲天悯人的真切情感，使得整部《伯罗奔尼撒战争史》充满着浓厚的悲剧气氛，加强了作品的内在感染力量。这是他吸取了希腊悲剧发展成果的具体体现。他是想通过这种悲剧效果来强化著作内容在读者头脑中的印象，从而加强对后世的垂训作用。

28. 2.2 Thucydides and Herodotus • 　修昔底德不仅在叙述史事时比较成功地克服了个人的情感，做到了“冷漠无情”，而且在评价史事时也能够遵守“客观”原则，按照一般的社会道德标准来判断人事的是非善恶。无论是雅典人还是外邦人，无论是雅典的朋友还是雅典的敌人，无论是对雅典有利还是对雅典不利，修昔底德评判过的人物和事件基本上都是比较公平的。

29. 2.3 On Thucydides • He failed as a general, he was a tremendous success as a historian. His influence has echoed down the centuries. • In antiquity, he was regarded as the model of the writing of history. The great Roman figure of Tacitus modeled his history of imperial Rome upon the somber objective truth of Thucydides. In the middle ages, he was read in Byzantium, and he was rediscovered in the Renaissance.

30. 2.4 Inflences of Thucydides • Thucydides was "the eternal manual statesman“ for the founders of American; • John Adams urged to his son John Quincy Adams, to devote himself to the study of Thucydides. "He is far more valuable", said John Adams, "than Plato," • "His knowledge of human nature, shows us why history is such an important discipline."

31. 2.4 Inflences of Thucydides • “Human nature never changes, and where Thucydides describes the politics of the Athenian democracy, you see before you, the future of our own country.” (John Adams) • George Marshall, Henry Kissinger have been great admirers of Thucydides and his history.

32. 2.4 Inflences of Thucydides • 用抽象的和永恒的“人性”来解释和理解历史发展。修昔底德认为：“古往今来，人就是人，有不变的人性。因此，过去发生过的事情，在未来会以十分相似的方式重复出现。”这样一来，就容易陷入历史循环论。

33. 2.7 Scientific History • So there's far more of the scientific modern air for the historian Thucydides than to Herodotus. And indeed he’d been called the first truly modern mind. • Moreover, he understood the importance of gaining every possible insight, and so he interviewed wherever possible eyewitnesses, balancing one source against another to come up with what he believed was the truth.

34. 2.8 Thucydides’s History • But he also is a rhetorician. He knew the importance of speech. He knew how the Athenian assembly was moved to action by powerful rhetoric. • And so, he includes again and again in his history pairs of speeches, in which the argument is given from both sides. • And he says "Even when I was not present for a speech, I tried to understand the context in which it would have been given, and deduce from that what men must have said."

35. 2.11 Thucydides and Machiavelli • Now, for Thucydides, there is little open moral judgment. He appears far more like Machiavelli. • Both of them are political failures, Machiavelli is driven from his office, and spends his creative activity in exile on his little farm outside Florence. He will never get back to his political power that so he desire. • And he writes about power, writes in the belief that history is the single best way to explore the future.

36. 2.11 Thucydides and Machiavelli • And Thucydides, like Machiavelli, spends his creative time, in exile, and both of them are concerned with power. • Thucydides says that "I have written this work as an eternal document, as a document for all times."

37. 2.11 Thucydides and Machiavelli • And both of them believe that morality, as it is ordinary expressed, is nothing but hypocrisy. • And morality plays no role in the actual decisions of men unless they are fools. There’s no such thing as justice; there’s no such thing as honor; there’s only power, and the eternal desire for power. That is the lesson of both Machiavelli and Thucydides.

38. 2.11 Thucydides and Machiavelli • Both of them would say, “I do not espouse that it is good to act as though ‘might makes right’, I simply say it is expedient that it is what all men do.”

39. 2.9 Causes of the War in his Eye • After the Persian Wars, Athens stepped in a position of leadership, creating an alliance, the Delian League, that gradually turned into virtually a maritime empire whose influence began to dominate the other city-states. Many other poleis, including Sparta felt that something needed to be done to limit Athens’ power. • Sparta, with the adequate resources and prestige, naturally took the lead. Eventually the war that for long seemed inevitable broke out in 431 B.C. between two coalitions of Greek poleis: Sparta and its allies, mostly located in the Peloponnese, and Athens and its allies, mostly located in and along the coast of the Aegean Sea.

40. 2.10 Causes of the War in his Eye • He believed that we must separate in examining the history or any event the true cause for a war and what people allege to be the causes. • The real cause was the growth of Athenian power, and the fear that this provoked among the Spartans, and so like Pericles, he believed that the war had to come about. Athenian power expanded as the economy of Athens expanded, and this so terrorized the Spartans that sooner or later they must make a war to stop the expansion.

41. 2. His Prediction of the P War • Thucydides began to collect material for his history at his very outbreak of the war, and he was convinced that it would be the greatest war in history. • “It was going to be a major war and that it would be more deserving of renown than any previous war.” • He understood that it would be a long war, unlike most politicians, and he understood that it would stretch the limits of both combatants, Athens and Sparta, to their utmost.

42. 2. His Prediction of the P War • 修昔底德的写作冲动，来自他对伯罗奔尼撒战争的深刻认识。正如他在书中所说的那样：“在这次战争刚刚爆发的时候，我就开始写这部历史著作，相信这次战争是一个伟大的战争，比过去曾经发生过的任何一次战争都更有记载的价值。我的这种信念是依据下列事实得来的：双方都竭尽全力来备战；同时我看到希腊世界中其余的国家，不是参加了这一边，就是参加了那一边；即使那些目前还没有参战的国家，也正在准备参战。这是希腊人历史上最严重的一次大动乱，同时也波及到大部分非希腊人的地区，可以说，几乎全人类都将蒙受其影响……。”

44. The Peloponnesian War

45. 3. The Peloponnesian War • Few Greek foresaw it would be different from any war • It would last twenty-seven years, from 431 to 404 B.C. • And cost thousands upon thousands of lives. • Undermining the social and political harmony of Athens, • Weakening its economic strengths, reducing its population, • Turning upside down the everyday life of most its citizens. • Altering the world the Greeks knew in many respects. • Original assumptions would break down, conventional morality and piety would face many challenges.

46. 4. Causes of the War in his Eye • Economics were important motivating force for this war; • The underlying cause of the war is the Spartan’s fear that Athens, as a growing power, would use its superiority in the naval forces of the Delian League to destroy Spartan control over the Peloponnesian League.

47. 5. The Process of the War Traditionally, the war divided into three phases: (1)From the Archidamian War and concluded in 421 B.C. with the signing of the Peace of Nicias; (2) Starting from Athenians’ Sicilian expedition, concluded in 413 B.C. with the destruction of the entire force; (3) The final phase is concluded with the Decelea War, or the Ionian War.

48. The ThreePhasesof The War

49. 5. The Process of the War • Both sides have their advantages and disadvantages: • For Sparta and its allies, with the exception of Corinth, were almost exclusively land-based powers, in command of large land armies which were very unbeatable. The Spartan infantry with its hoplites(装甲步兵)were very much skillful in set battles. • The Athenians, on the other hand, are superior in terms of naval resources and experience. As a maritime empire, its supremacy at sea was subject to no challenges.

50. 6. Phase I: The Periclean Strategy • Pericles predicts in his speech delivered in the assembly that the war will last longer than most people expect. The Spartans would give full play to their own advantages with their land forces and destroy the Athenian’s crops. But Pericles encourages his fellow citizens that he has great confidence in Athens’ prospects for success in the war: • “As long as you maintain control of the seas and as long as you are willing to refrain from further acts of conquest while you are at war and from importing dangers of you own devising…for I am more afraid of our own lapses of judgment than of our enemies’ schemes.”