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THUCYDIDES AND THE HISTORY OF HIS AGE

G. B. Grundy

 
 

Basil Blackwell, Oxford, Vol I originally 1910, this second edition with Vol II then in 1948, and this reprint of both in 1961 - vol 1, 553 pgs., vol II, 256 pgs., index, footnotes, many illustrations in Vol II, maps

 
 

Reviewer Comments:
This is a massive study of all aspects of fifth century Greek society with special attention to economic reality, as far as it is known now. As the title indicates it takes the incomparable work of Thucydides as a core historical source. But the author has sought and employed many other sources as well. As he notes, his original purpose was to prepare a background study to an edition of Thucydides' work, but his efforts soon expanded into a full sized history of the Greek society. As such it is an extremely valuable reference for the real life context in which Thucydides was living and writing. However, much more has been learned about classical Greece, much from archeology, in the 100 years since it was published. The author's two prefaces tell the story. The summary table of contents indicates the breadth of the subject matter and its important study of subjects not much addressed in editions of Thucydides' text. It is clear that Dr. Grundy included in his Volume II important but ancillary subjects that could not be fitted into volume I.

Some or many readers today will not find professor Grundy's exposition pleasant but instead distasteful - not 'politically correct' in their opinion. But his view is well worth consideration. In his prolegomena he spells this out at some length.

 
 

Vol I - Preface

 
 

Prolegomena to Thucydides - Introductory Chapter - The Nature of Thucydides' Work

The author begins: "Thucydides, an Athenian, composed a history of the war between the Peloponnesians and Athenians The historian did not aim at writing a general history of the period within which fell the event which he records. His attention was confined to that great war which was to be so fateful to the Greek states of his day - fatefulness which he and thinking men seem to have anticipated at its very outset. They knew, what every Greek felt, that the Athenian Empire was not merely an outrage but a menace to political liberty as the race understood liberty; and that the states of Greece had set their teeth with the intention of destroying this power which threatened not merely the freedom but, by its control of large sources of food supply, the very lives of many of them. "

Note: Peloponnesians and Athenians - NOT Sparta and Athens.

Dr. Grundy continues with a description of contemporary Greek thinking about literature - epics and drama. He relates Thucydides' effort to the literary creation of Herodotus. He writes that Thucydides set his own much narrower field and omitted much information about aspects of contemporary Greek history that would have more fully explained the war. He points out that much of what would be of great interest to us now, was uninteresting to his readers who already had common knowledge of their lives.

And he concludes: "With Thucydides the military history is a means to an end, not an end in itself. He aimed at being a teacher, not of strategy or tactics, but of politics, understanding by politics that life of men in communities. His method was inductive. he cited facts and then drew conclusions from them. He believed in cycles of history, and he wished to aid the case of civilization by showing men how, under a given set circumstances, individuals, and, above all, communities, had in the past acted rightly or wrongly, in order that in the future the mistakes of the past might be avoided." And, "his work is full of implied moral judgments'.

 
 

Part I: - The Life of Thucydides - Chapter I

 
 

Part II: - The General Reliability of the Received Text of Thucydides - Chapter II

 
 

Part III: _ The Economic Background of Greek History
Chapter III The Food Supply of Greece

 
 

Chapter IV Slavery and Labour

 
 

Chapter V Economic Position of Classes in Attica in the Sixth Century

 
 

Chapter VI Economic Development and Policy in Attica B.C. 510 to B.C. 462

 
 

Chapter VII The Periklean Democracy and the Athenian Empire

 
 

Part IV: - Chapter VIII The Policy of Sparta in the Fifth Century

 
 

Part V: The Art of War During the Later Half of the Fifth Century

 
 

Chapter IX The Natural Conditions of Warfare in Greece

 
 

Chapter X The Citizen, the Professional, and the Mercenary Army

 
 

Chapter XI Methods of Fighting Employed by Greek Armies at the Time

 
 

Chapter XII Light-Armed Troops and Cavalry in Greek Warfare

 
 

Chapter XIII Siege Operations

 
 

Chapter XIV Naval Warfare

 
 

Part VI: The Causes and Strategy of the Ten Years' War

 
 

Chapter XV The Causes and Plans of the War as Set Forth in Thucydides

 
 

Chapter XVI The War in Attica - Boeotia and the Isthmus

 
 

Chapter XVII The Corinthian Gulf and North-West Greece

 
 

Chapter XVIII Sicily - Macedonia and Chalkidike - The Asiatic Coast - The Results of the War

 
 

Appendix: The Composition of Thucydides' History

 
 

Chapter I The General Question

 
 

Chapter II The Composition of Book I

 
 

Chapter III Special Sections and Passages in the introductory Matter of Book I

 
 

Chapter IV Consideration of Passages from I, xxiv-cxivi

 
 

Chapter V The Expressions (xxxxx in Greek) in Thucydides

 
 

Chapter VI The Composition of the Story of the Ten Year's War

 
 

Chapter VII The Story of the Ten Year's War After Thucydides' Exile

 
 

Chapter VIII The Close of the Ten Year's War

 
 

Chapter IX The Fifth Book (25-116)

 
 

Chaper X The Sixth and Seventh Books

 
 

Chapter XI Date of Composition of Books v (25-116), vi, vii

 
 

Chapter XII Book Vii

 
 

Chapter XIII Summary

 
 

Volume II

 
 

Preface

 
 

Introduction

 
 

I Humanism: The Spirit of an Age

 
 

II Thucydides the Man

 
 

III Thucydides and the Philosophy of History

 
 

IV Religion in Greek Life

 
 

V The Strategy of the Decelean and Ionian Wars

 
 

VI The Topography of Thucydides

 
 

VII Parties at Athens During the Peloponnesian War

 
 

VIII Sparta in the Latter Half of the Fifth Century

 

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