A Study Of Thucydides’ Pentekontaetia

The Pentekontaetia(1.89-1.118)is an excursus in ancient Greek historian Thucydides’ Book 1 of the History of the Peloponnesian War,which outlines ancient Greek history during the period of almost half-century,between the end of Persian War and the beginning of the Peloponnesian War.Undoubtedly,these two wars significantly changed the Greek world of city-states,and had a great influence on Western civilizations.In view of their vital historical significance,the fifty-years Greek history between the wars should have been the focus of historical research.Thucydides’ s Pentekontaetia is the main source of this period of history,mentioned by no other ancient historian.Therefore,the study on the Pentekontaetia not only can review the real history of this important period,but also helps to analyze the great historian’s historical writing.This dissertation mainly consists of introduction,six chapters,conclusion correlative discussion.The introduction expounds the significance and value of the this topic,and introduces the historical evidence related to this study,and furthermore summarizes the current research on the subject.Chapter Ⅰ firstly analyzes the origin,meaning and use of the term “Pentekontaetia”.Then it briefly introduces the personal life of Thucydides and the writing of the History of the Peloponnesian War,with high evaluation about his contribution.Finally it pays attention to features,structure and content,and discusses the significance of the Pentekontaetia in Book 1,and the whole work.Chapter Ⅱ is based on the texts of the Pentekontaetia,which can be roughly divided into two sections: the first section(1.89-96)starting from the individual leaders,focuses on the rise of Athens and the strategic retraction of Sparta after the Persian War;the second section(1.97-118),based on Athens’ expansion,states how Athenians treated Persians,Spartans and their own alliances in order to maintain their hegemony and empire.Thucydides’ s writing motivations are clear: the one is to provide reliable evidence for his core opinion in Book 1,the other motivation is to fill the historical gap,and correct the mistakes made by his predecessors.Although there are still controversies about the completion time of the Pentekontaetia,most scholars tend to regard it as a work written by Thucydides at the end of his life,permeating the historian’s thoughts and insights into the causes of war.Chapter Ⅲ focuses on the writing skills that Thucydides used in the Pentekontaetia.Herodotus often told stories by using a lot of excursuses,whereas Thucydides rarely deviated from his topics,if necessary,the Pentekontaetia is the important example,to prove his cognition of the cause of the war by inserting events.The historian highlights the huge differences between Athens and Sparta by contrasting them from individual and polis,in order to provide a reasonable explanation for their conflict and contradiction.The ring composition in the writing structure indicates that Thucydides’ writing is deeply influenced by oral tradition of ancient Greece,the structures and themes are interlinked,which makes his historical narration more attractive.Chapter Ⅳ reveals the two most obvious defects in the Pentekontaetia: the ambiguity of chronology and omissions.Although the History of the Peloponnesian War is a model of annalistic style in classical historiography,the Pentekontaetia is completely out of that style,which hardly provides exact dating without precise chronological framework.What makes Thucydides’ objective and rigorous historian image has been criticized because he omitted many historical events and even significant events during this period.These two defects are partly caused by limited space,partly because Thucydides indeed did not have sufficient historical evidence.Chapter Ⅴ is the core of this thesis,it discusses Thucydides’ historical writing by taking the Pentekontaetia as an example.He distinguished the direct cause and the fundamental cause of that war by using “aitia” and “prophasis”,which shows that his view and analysis of the war is unique and profound.And the Pentekontaetia is the detailed footnote of “alethestate prophasis”.Thucydides’ account of Athenian hegemony and Athenian empire was particularly striking: on the one hand,he wanted to emphasize the growth of Athens and the power of her hegemony;on the other hand,he wished to avoid the readers disliking the Athenian empire.However,we can almost see the historian’s position from his detailed description: he selected many evidences which was favorable to Athens,and pushed the responsibility of the war to Sparta.The selection and description of historical events and their relations in the Pentekontaetia might have been related to his own rational history construction of Greek history.Chapter Ⅵ outlines the half-century Greek history between two wars.It tries to find out the historical facts that are not recorded in the Pentekontaetia,with the help of other writers’ works and Greek inscriptions,rather than the statements of a school from Thucydides.It details Athenian empire and its imperialism,the development of Athenian democracy,and the misjudgment of Sparta,and reconstructs the true and comprehensive ancient Greek history.To sum up,Thucydides’ Pentekontaetia is not a summary of the history of this period,but the main outline of Athens’ expansion.Its purpose is to prove that his claim about the origins of the war was correct: the Athenians becoming great and arousing fear in the Spartans,what forced them into war.The excursus of the Pentekontaetia has realized the purpose of the historian’s writing,and represented his perfect writing skills.The last part represents the current hot topic,“Thucydides Trap”.From the perspective of political and international relations,its practical significance is far greater than theoretical significance.But in classical studies,the “Thucydides Trap” has serious drawbacks both in historical and academic aspects.Therefore,we should be aware of not falling into the the belief in the “Thucydides Trap”.