“My own opinion is that when the whole state is on the right course it is a better thing for each separate individual than when private interests are satisfied but the state as a whole is going downhill.” – Pericles in Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War

You may wonder, Why is she reading Thucydides? 

Or you may wonder, Who is Thucydides?

Or, Isn’t she bored by History of the Peloponnesian War?

Actually, I love Thucydides.

Long ago, in our challenging Greek composition class, we had an assignment to translate The Gettysburg Address into Greek in the style of Thucydides. None of us had read Thucydides but that changed before the day was done. 

The truth is, everyone delights in Herodotus, that most charming of Greek historians.  Herodotus, who traveled widely, interweaves myths and personal interviews in his accounts of history.

But Thucydides has another story to tell.  He was an Athenian general and war historian who documented the war between Athens and Sparta in the fifth century BCE. (It lasted 27 years.) Unlike Herodotus, Thucydides does not lull us with intervals of myth and romance. He sticks as closely to the facts as possible, though he does re-create speeches of famous generals. He also writes in the third person, which certainly sounds more objective, though it is not necessarily (Julius Caesar did the same in the first century BCE). 

Thucydides begins the History of the Peloponnesian War with a third-person description of himself: “Thucydides the Athenian wrote the history of the war fought between Athens and Sparta…”  

The modern Penguin uses Rex Warner’s translation, first published in 1954.  Warner is like an old friend, and I’m pleased to read him again.  He also translated Euripides, Xenophon, Plutarch, and St. Augustine.

In his Translator’s Note, he writes,

 It is difficult, pleasurable, and bold to attempt to translate Thucydides into English. There are difficulties of many kinds.  Not only is it a question of working long hours, since the work is long.  It is also the fact that, though the meaning of Thucydides is usually (though not always) clear enough, it is expressed in a style which is extremely hard to translate into another language.

And he adds, “As for the pleasures of translation, it is sufficient to say that, if one loves one’s author, one loves being in his company.”