ABSTRACT
The features of Thucydides’ work which throw a strong light on the character of the man of the writer there is one particularly notable in the times when historians make it their avowed aim to produce narratives which, though adhering strictly to historical truth, shall be written from a national point of view. The possibility of an alliance between history and special pleading does not appear to have occurred to Thucydides, whose courage in recording the vices of his own country is equalled by his generosity in recognising the virtues of his country’s enemies. A similar detachment Thucydides manifests in his attitude towards a far greater sordidness than any individual crime; and he contrasts very significantly with his contemporary Euripides, whose mind is as modern as his own, but of a different cast. The generation of Thucydides lived through one of the crises; and the shock was calculated to unhinge all but the strongest minds.
