Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War
Background: Thucydides was one of the first people to study human events as not being a function of
divine intervention or control. He developed the idea of history, as a human subject that we can study and
from which we can learn, and not repeat mistakes. (Using LOGIC!)
When Thucydides was young, Athens was led by a leader named Pericles, who shaped Athens during their
Golden Age after the Persian Wars. This was the time when Athens became an empire and led a coalition
of Greek city-states called the Delian League. The great buildings we still see today were built on the
Acropolis, establishing a style of symmetry and beauty that is still favored in Western culture. Athens was
not a democracy in our sense of the word, as the majority of the population could not vote, but it was a step
toward democracy in comparison with what came before it. Beginning in 431 BCE, Pericles led Athens in
the Peloponnesian War against Sparta, which disliked that Athens led the Delian League. Thucydides is
known for his writings about these wars. In this excerpt, Thucydides records a speech by Pericles. The
speech honors those that died in Athens during the first year of the war. Within a generation, Athens would
lie defeated by Sparta, her Golden Age finished. Waiting in the wings to take power was a Macedonian
Greek king ready to bring unity to the Greeks. His son, Alexander the Great, unified much of AfroEurasia
and spread Greek culture and learning abroad in the process known as “Hellenization,” after the Greek name
for themselves, “Helenes.”
“During the winter…the funeral of those who first fell in this war was celebrated by the Athenians at the
public charge…Over those who were first buried Pericles was chosen to speak…he spoke as follows…
‘I will speak first of our ancestors, for it is right and becoming that now, when we are lamenting the dead, a
tribute should be paid to their memory. There has never been a time when they did not inhabit this land,
which by their valor they have handed down from generation to generation, and we have received from
them a free state…and transmitted to us their sons this great empire…Our form of government does not
enter into rivalry with the institutions of others. We do not copy our neighbors, but are an example to
them…we are called a democracy, for the administration is in the hands of the many, and not the few.
Neither is poverty a bar, but a man may benefit his country whatever be the obscurity of his condition.
Because of the greatness of our city the fruits of the whole earth flow in upon us; so that we enjoy the goods
of other countries as freely as our own. Then, again, or military training is in many respects superior to that
of our adversaries…This is no passing and idle word, but truth and fact. Such is the city for whose sake
these men nobly fought and died; they could not bear that thought that she might be taken from them; and
every one of us who survives should gladly toil on her behalf.
1. What are Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle known for (individual accomplishments?)
2. What did Athenians say was the reason they put Socrates on trial? What do you think the real reason
was?
3. Describe the argument of Socrates before the jury of Athenian citizens. Was he right? Why or why
not?
Plato, Apologia
Background: Socrates (469-399 BCE), Athens’ first great philosopher, did not leave any of his own
writings behind after his death. Like Confucius, his thoughts come to us from a disciple and follower of his
teachings, Plato (427-348 BCE). Socrates was famous for shaming those in Athens who thought they were
knowledgeable. He would make fools of people by ensnaring them in debates and showing them that their
ideas were false or misguided. Socrates stated that a moral person was one who knows what is good and
acts according to the good. Put on death-sentence trial for “corrupting the youth of Athens” and “refusing
to honor the gods,” we hear Socrates, through Plato, give a justification for his life and method of inquiry,
rather than a plea for his life. Found guilty and condemned to death, the jury expected Socrates to flee the
city and spare his own life. Instead, faithful to his own moral code, Socrates drank hemlock, a plant that
caused him to die, as was dictated to be his fate by the jury. Plato, Socrates greatest student, recorded many
of Socrates’ ideas and finally opened the Academy, an institute of philosophical learning that remained open
for 900 years, pursuing the wisdom that Socrates defended and died for. Plato’s student, Aristotle, has had
the greatest influence on Western idea of learning through observation and experimentation, and taught
Alexander the Great, who allowed the spread of these philosophies and Greek ideas throughout AfroEurasia.
“[Socrates stated that]…the young men who have the most leisure, the sons of the richest men, accompany
me of their own accord, finding pleasure in hearing people being examined, and often imitate me themselves,
and then they undertake to examine others; and then, they find a great plenty of people who think they know
something, but know little or nothing. As a result, therefore, those who are examined by them are angry
with me, instead of being angry with themselves, and say that, ‘Socrates is a most abominable person and is
corrupting the youth.’ And when anyone asks them ‘by doing or teaching what?’ they have nothing to
say…
“Therefore I say to you, men of Athens, either [give charges against me], or not, and either acquit me, or not,
knowing that I shall not change my conduct even if I am to die many times over…For know that, if you kill
me, I being such a man as I say I am, you will not injure me so much as yourselves. For if you put me to
death, you will not easily find another who….attaches himself to the city as a gadfly to a horse
which…needs to be aroused by stinging…then you would pass the rest of your lives in slumber….”
1. Describe the basics of the Peloponnesian Wars.
2. What was Thucydides’s main argument?
3. What does he say is special about Athens? Do you think he justifies the war well?