HiST 201 Essay 2: What was History to the First Historians? Comparing Herodotus and Thucydides

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Start here! This just picks up where we finished last week, after the first year of the Peloponnesian War.

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This is the beginning of Thucydides' account of Pericles' funeral oration. It's a good idea to keep his comments on how he reports speeches from 1.22 in mind.

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Stop here, and skip to the next passage from book 6.

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We have now jumped forward 15-16 years to 415 BCE. Athens and Sparta have been at peace since 421 BCE, although this will soon end. Here Thucydides describes deliberations before the assembly in Athens about whether or not to launch an invasion of the island of Sicily at the invitation of the people of Egesta, who were fighting a war against Selinus, another Sicilian city.

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The Athenians had already voted to start the campaign.

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Stop here and skip forward to the next passage from book 7.

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Resume here. It is now 413 BCE, the Athenian expedition has been on Sicily for almost two years, Nicias is still in charge. Alcibiades, who had been appointed joint-commander fled to the Spartans. The Athenians besieging the city of Syracuse were themselves besieged and without a fleet to supply them they are in desperate retreat.

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Remember, Peloponnesians are Spartans and their allies.

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Gylippus was a Spartan general.