ABSTRACT
The hypothesis of an unreliable Thucydides would be a very depressing one for the student of antiquity. He wrote that eclipses of the sun were more frequent during the Peloponnesian War than in what was remembered of earlier times. Astronomy now records that there were six solar eclipses visible at Athens in the period of hostilities 431-404. During the Peloponnesian War both great powers played to their own strengths with a degree of self-discipline greater than Thucydides gives credit for, in his generalisations. The policy of opportunism and of playing to one’s strengths interacted with stasis. The attack on Plataia by Thebes began the war by virtue of the fact that Plataia was an ally of Athens, and Thebes an ally of Sparta. In 431 Athens sent out a fleet of 100 ships, the first of many which during the war were to ravage coastal districts of the Peloponnese.
