Thucydides Narrative and Explanation

by Rood, Tim

• ISBN13: 9780198152569
• ISBN10: 0198152566
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1999-01-14
• Publisher: Clarendon Press

Summary

"War is a harsh teacher" wrote Thucydides in the fifth century BC. Rood analyses the techniques through which Thucydides' narrative explains the origin and course of the Peloponnesian War and exposes harsh truths about how individuals and states behave. Rood concentrates on how the use oftechniques, such as selectivity, interaction of speech and narrative, and manipulation of time and perspective, points at one level to general human constraints, at another to the self-destructiveness of Athen's imperial power. The book explores some techniques that have received little attentionand offers new ways of reading others; it gives new insight into Thucydides' sophistication and the way he relates to his predecessors. It is also important for its attempts to refute views that Thucydides' History is made up of different compositional strata or inspired by pro-Athenian bias. Andit addresses directly the way modern historians use Thucydides,, contributes to the contemporary debate over narrative history, and shows the value of applying some of the concepts of recent narrative theory to historical texts.

Table of Contents

Abbreviations	x
PART I INTERPRETING THUCYDIDES	3	(58)
1. Introduction: History and Literature	3	(21)
2. The Analysis of Narrative: Pylos	24	(37)
PART II TIME, PERCEPTIONS, KNOWLEDGE	61	(72)
3. Perceptions: Towards Peace	61	(22)
4. Misreadings: Book V	83	(26)
5. Temporal Manipulation	109	(24)
PART III EXPLAINING DEFEAT	133	(72)
6. Selectivity and Omission: Athenian Politics	133	(26)
7. Athens and Sicily	159	(24)
8. Nikias and Athens	183	(22)
PART IV EXPLAINING WAR	205	(46)
9. Selectivity and Omission: Book I	205	(20)
10. The Pentekontaetia	225	(26)
PART V CONTINUITY AND CLOSURE	251	(43)
11. Continuity: Book VIII	251	(34)
12. Conclusion: The Ends of History	285	(9)
Appendix: Focalization and its (Dis)contents	294	(3)
References	297	(16)
Index of Passages Cited	313	(17)
General Index	330