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( Thucydides)
Thucydides (c. 460 BC – c. 395 BC) (Greek T????d?d??, Thoukudídes) was an ancient Greek historian, and the author of the History of the Peloponnesian War, which recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens to the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been regarded as the father of "scientific history" because of his strict standards of gathering evidence and his analysis in terms of cause and effect without reference to intervention by the gods.[1] He has also been considered the father of the school of political realism, which views the relations between nations as based on might rather than right.[2] His classic text is still studied at advanced military colleges worldwide. More generally, he shows an interest in developing an understanding of human nature to explain human behavior in such crises as plague and civil war. Other scholars lay greater emphasis on the History’s elaborate literary artistry and the powerful rhetoric of its speeches and insist that its author exploited non-"scientific" literary genres no less than newer, rationalistic modes of explanation. Considering his stature as a historian, we know comparatively little about Thucydides' life. The most reliable information comes from his own History of the Peloponnesian War, and consists of his nationality, paternity, and native locality. Thucydides also tells us that he fought in the war, contracted the plague, and was exiled by the democracy. Thucydides identifies himself as an Athenian, tells us that his father's name was Olorus and that he was from the Athenian deme of Halimous.[3] Thucydides tells us that he contracted the plague that ravaged Athens,[4] a plague which killed Pericles and many other Athenians. He records that he owned gold mines at Scapte Hyle, a district of Thrace on the Thracian coast opposite the island of Thasos.[5] Because of his influence in the Thracian region, Thucydides tells us, he was sent as a strategos (general) to Thasos in 424 BC. During the winter of 424-423 BC, the Spartan general Brasidas attacked Amphipolis, a half-day's sail west from Thasos on the Thracian coast. Eucles, the Athenian commander at Amphipolis, sent to Thucydides for help.[6] Brasidas, aware of Thucydides' presence on Thasos and his influence with the people of Amphipolis and afraid of help arriving by sea, acted quickly to offer moderate terms to the Amphipolitans for their surrender, which they accepted. Thus when Thucydides arrived, Amphipolis was already under Spartan control[7] (see Battle of Amphipolis). Amphipolis was of considerable strategic importance, and news of its fall caused great consternation in Athens.[8] The fall of Amphipolis was blamed on Thucydides, though he claimed it wasn't his fault, that he had simply been unable to reach it in time. Because of his failure to save Amphipolis, Thucydides was sent into exile, as he wrote[9]
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