Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/1125

Rh THUCYDIDES. trustworthy accounts as to his places of residence during his exile ; but we may conclude that he could not safely reside in any place which was under Athenian dominion, and as he kept his eye on the events of the war, he must have lived in those parts which belonged to the Spartan alliance. His own words certainly imply that, during his exile, he spent much of his time either in the Pe- loponnesus or in places which were under Pelo- ponnesian influence (v. 26) ; and his work was the result of his own eicperience and observations. His minute description of Syracuse and the neigh- bourhood leads to the probable conclusion that he was personally acquainted with the localities ; and if he visited Sicily, it is probable that he also saw some parts of southern Italy, and an anonymous biographer speaks of Thucydides having been at Sybaris. But it is rather too bold a conjecture to make, as some have done, that Olorus and his son Thucydides went out in the colony to Thurii, B. c 443, which was joined by Herodotus and the orator Lysias, then a young man. Timaeus, as quoted by Marcellinus, says that Thucydides du- ring his exile lived in Italy ; but if he means during all the time of his exile, his statement cannot be accepted, for it would contradict the inference which may be fairly derived from a passage in Thucydides that has been already referred to. Ti- maeus, and other authorities also, affirmed that Thucydides was buried at Thurii ; as to which Kriiger ingeniously argues, that if he lived there for some time, there is nothing strange in a story being invented of his having been buried there, especially as he might have had a tomb built with the intention of occupying it. Thucydides says that he lived twenty years in exile (v. 26), and as his exile commenced in the beginning of B. c. 423, he may have returned to Athens in the beginning of B. c. 403, and there- fore at or about the time when Thrasybulus liberated Athens. (Xen. Hellcn. ii. 4. §§ 22—38.) It may accordingly be conjectured that Thucydides joined Thrasybulus, and in company with him effected his return to his native country. Pau- sanias indeed (i. 23. § 9) states that Thucydides was recalled by a psephisma proposed by Oenobius, but this account creates some difficulty, because it appeared from a critical enumeration of the authori- ties cited by Marcellinus, that there was a general permission for all the exiles to return after the conclusion of peace with the Laedaemonians, b. c. 404. Thucydides himself says that he was twenty years in exile, and therefore he did not return till B. c. 403, unless we assume that his " twenty years " was merely a round number used to signify nineteen years and somewhat more ; or unless we assume that he did not return as soon as he might have done, but a few months later, so that the full term of twenty years was completed. There is a general agreement among the ancient authorities that Thucydides came to a violent end ; Zopyrus and Didymus, quoted by Marcellinus, affirm this ; and JPlutarch (Cimon 4), and Pau- sanias (i. 23. § 9) tell the same story. But there is a great diversity of evidence as to the place Avhere he died ; and it is doubtful whether it was Thrace or Athens. Plutarch saj-s, it is reported that he was killed in Scaptesyle in Thrace, but that his remains were carried to Athens, and his tomb is pointed out in the burial-place of Cimon, by the side of the tomb of Elpinice, the sister of THUCYDIDES. 1113 Cimon. Pansanias, who was well acquainted with Athens, says that his tomb was then not far from the Pylae Melitides ; and that he was assassinated after his return (w$ KaTjfei), words which seem to imply that he did not long survive his restoration. Marcellinus, on the authority of Antyllus, quotes ^ the inscription on his tomb at Athens : QovKuSihris 'OXSpov ('OpoAov) 'AXl/jLovaios {eudaSe KeTrai), We cannot doubt that there was a tomb of Thucydides at Athens, and he probably died there • the testimony of Timaeus that he died in Italy, is of little value. The question as to the time of the return of Thucydides to Athens, and of the place of his death and interment, is discussed by KrUg,e,r with a wearisome minuteness, and with uiicertain re- sults. As to the time of the death of Thucy- "" dides, he concludes that it could not be later than the end or about the middle of the 94th Olympiad, that is, in any event not later than B. c. 4Q1. His own direct testimony (v. 26) simply shows that he was living after the war was ended (b. c. 404). Dodwell argues that the third eruption of Aetna, which Thucydides (iii. 116) alludes to was the eruption of b. c. 399 or the 95th Olympiad ; but Thucydides means to say that the eruption, of which he does not fix the date, was prior to the two eruptions (b. c. 425 and 475) of which he does fix the dates. There is no doubt about the true interpretation of this passage. The time when he composed his work is another matter of critical inquiry. He was busy in collect- ^ ing materials all through the war from the begin- ning to the end (i. 22) ; but we do not know <--' from his own evidence whether he wrote any por- tion of the work, as we now have it, during the continuance of the war, though he would certainly have plenty of time during his exile to compose the earlier part of his history. Plutarch says that he wrote the work in Thrace ; and his words mean the whole work, as he does not qualify them (rbv irSkefMOV Toiv HeAoirovurjaiwu koI ^AOrjvaiccv iv QpaicTj irepl rriv 'S.KaiTTriv uA.tjv), and this is con- sistent with Plutarch's statement that he died in Thrace. Marcellinus says that he gave the work its last polish in Thrace ; and that he wrote it under a plane tree : this is very particular, and it is not improbable that he might write under a shady tree in fine weather, but such particularities are very suspicious. The most probable opinion is v that he was engaged on the work till the time of his death. In the very beginning of his history (i. 18) he mentions the end of the war in a pas- sage which must have been written after B. c. 404. A passage in the first book (i. 93), when rightly interpreted, shows that it was written after the wall round the Peiraeeus was pulled down (Xen. HcUen. ii. 2). In the second book (ii. 65) he speaks of the Sicilian expedition, and the sup- port which Cyrus gave to the Lacedaemonians, and of the final defeat of the Athenians in this war ; all which passages consequently were written after the events to which they refer. A passage in the fifth book also (v. 26), mentions the end of the war, the duration of which, he says, was twenty-seven years. Thucydides un- doubtedly was collecting his materials all through the war, and of course he would register them as he got them ; but the work m the shape in which