Thucydides and the Greek World: 479 BC to 403 BC

I.2. Thucydides and the Greek World: 479 BC to 403 BC

Victory over Persia led to the rise of the Athenian Empire, conflict between Athens and Sparta and Sparta’s eventual victory in the Peloponnesian War. These years cover the transition from archaic to classical Greece, the Periclean age of Athens, the masterpieces of art, architecture and literature which are the supreme legacies of the Greek world, the contrasting lifestyles of Sparta and democratic Athens, and the careers of Alcibiades, Socrates and their famous contemporaries. They are studied through the History of Thucydides, antiquity’s most masterly analysis of empire, inter-state relations and war, which Thucydides claimed to have written, justifiably, as "a possession for all times". The issues of Thucydides’ own bias and viewpoint and his shaping of his History remain among the storm centres of the study of antiquity and are of far-reaching significance for our understanding of the moral, intellectual and political changes in the Greek world. The period is also studied through inscriptions, whose context and content are a fascinating challenge to modern historians.

If you are offering this period as a text-based subject, passages for compulsory comment and translation will be set from: Thucydides I. 89- II 54; III 20-85; and VIII. 45-98; Xenophon Hellenica II.2-4.

A document on WebLearn (‘Documents Greek HistoryI.2.pdf’) lists key documents, some of which will be set (with a translation) among the optional gobbets (qu. 16). It has been decided that (where possible) tutorials for this period of Greek History will take place in the second half of Michaelmas Term and in Hilary Term, and Lectures on this subject will therefore normally take place in Michaelmas and Hilary Terms.

It has been decided that (where possible) tutorials for this period of Greek History will take place in the second half of Michaelmas Term and in Hilary Term, and Lectures on this subject will therefore normally take place in Michaelmas and Hilary Terms.

Choosing your combinations - this period makes a natural pair with both the preceding and the following one, and is of special value to those who intend to offer the latter, since both the Peloponnesian war and Thucydides’ reflections on it shape our understanding of what follows. It is extremely useful for those studying I.7 Athenian Democracy to acquaint themselves with the origins of the democratic system at Athens. This period also offers excellent historical background to work on both fifth-century literature (III.1, 6 or 7) and on classical Greek art (IV.2).