ABSTRACT
It is time for me to appeal to the reader for indulgence, as I treat the events that Thucydides has already handled incomparably: in this part of his narrative he was indeed at his most emotional, vivid, and varied. But do not assume that I am as vain as Timaeus, who thought that he would outdo Thucydides in brilliance and show Philistus to be totally vulgar and amateurish…Of course, it is not possible to omit the events treated by Thucydides and Philistus, for they include material that gives an especially clear notion of the man’s character and his disposition, so often revealed (or possibly ‘hidden’) by his many calamities. But I have summarized them briefly and kept to the essentials, just to avoid the charge of total negligence. I have tried instead to collect material that is not well-known, but scattered among other authors, or found on ancient dedications and decrees. Nor is this an accumulation of useless erudition: I am conveying material that is helpful for grasping the man’s nature and character.
