ABSTRACT
Introduction: democracy, envy and the incompleteness of history
Near the beginning of Pericles’ Funeral Oration in Thucydides, Book II, we find the two following statements, separated by a single paragraph:
35: ... He who is a stranger to the matter [i.e., the glorious deeds Pericles is about to commemorate] may be led by envy to suspect
exaggeration if he hears anything above his own nature. For men can endure to hear others praised only so long as they can severally persuade themselves of their own ability to equal the actions recounted; when this point is passed, envy comes in and with it incredulity ...
