How did Thucydides describe the plague?
According to Thucydides, the Plague of Athens, the illness began by showing symptoms in the head as it worked its way through the rest of the body. He also describes in detail the symptoms victims of the plague experienced.
Why does Thucydides talk about the plague?
The Plague of Athens is treated by Thucydides in the same way as the war with careful attention to the recording of empirical detail without suggesting any reasons for the epidemic. His purpose is entirely instructive in the hope that future generations would be able to learn from the lessons of the past.
What does Thucydides say about the origin of the disease that afflicted Athens in 430?
Shrewsbury, in The Plague of Athens, identified the disease as being “new” to Athens. Thucydides suggested that Greek physicians did not recognize the illness which struck the population. Thucydides’ reason for describing the symptoms was to allow future people to recognize the illness, should it ever strike again.
What did Thucydides believe about the future generations?
On the future of history, Thucydides speculated that since there are no “temples or monuments of magnificence” in Sparta, “future generations would find it very difficult to believe” that it once commanded two-fifths of the Peloponnesus; while those same generations would conclude from the impressive ruins of Athens …
What did Thucydides do?
Thucydides is the author of History of the Peloponnesian War, a sweeping contemporary account of the nearly three-decade conflict between Athens and Sparta for dominance of the Greek world. The eight-volume work is regarded as one of the finest works of history ever written.
Where did Thucydides get his information?
Unlike his near-contemporary Herodotus (author of the other great ancient Greek history), Thucydides’ topic was his own time. He relied on the testimony of eyewitnesses and his own experiences as a general during the war.
Why is Thucydides important?
Why is Thucydides important? Thucydides is the author of History of the Peloponnesian War, a sweeping contemporary account of the nearly three-decade conflict between Athens and Sparta for dominance of the Greek world. The eight-volume work is regarded as one of the finest works of history ever written.
Why is Thucydides work important?
To historians, for example, he is a vital source for ancient Greek history, but has also been seen as a model for history-writing in general; to political theorists, however, he is a pioneering political theorist, and the originator of ‘realist’ approaches to understanding political life.
What was Thucydides famous for?
What was Thucydides theory?
Definition. The term describes the theory that when a great power’s position as hegemon is threatened by an emerging power, there is a significant likelihood of war between the two powers.
What is Thucydides’s summary of the plague?
Thucydides gives a general account of the early stages of the plague – its likely origins in north Africa, its spread in the wider regions of Athens, the struggles of the doctors to deal with it, and the high mortality rate of the doctors themselves.
What war did Thucydides write about?
His focus was the Peloponnesian war fought between Athens and Sparta, and their respective allies, between 431 and 404 BC. Thucydides’ description of the plague that struck Athens in 430 BC is one of the great passages of Greek literature.
Why does Thucydides refuse to mention the Black Death?
Thucydides’ elder colleague Herodotus of Halicarnassus would have said that “the gods wanted it” or something like it, but Thucydides refuses to do so. One would expect that after the description of the disease, the historian would have made a remark about the consequences that the plague had for the war.
Did Sophocles and Thucydides know each other in Athens?
Thucydides (c.460-400BC) and Sophocles (490-406BC) would have known one another in Athens, although it is hard to say much more than that for a lack of evidence. The two works mentioned above were produced at about the same time. The play Oedipus was probably produced about 429 BC, and the plague of Athens occurred in 430-426 BC.