Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/1126

Rh nu THUCYDIDES. we have it, was certainly not finished until after the close of the war. A question has been raised as to the authorship of the eighth and last book of Thucj'dides, which breaks off in the middle of the twenty-first year of the war (b. c. 411) ; and with the remark that, shall have ended, the one and twentieth year of the war is completed." It differs from all the other books in containing no speeches, a circum- stance which Dionysius remarked, and it has also been supposed to be inferior to the rest as a piece of composition. Accordingly several ancient critics supposed that the eighth book was not by Thucy- dides : some attributed it to his daughter, and some to Xenophon or Theopompus, because both of them continued the history. The words with which Xenophon's Hellenica commence (mcto 86 TavTo) may chiefly have led to the supposition that he was the author, for his work is made to appear as a continuation of that of Thucydides : but this argument is in itself of little weight ; and besides, both the style of the eighth book is different from that of Xenophon, and the manner of treating the subject, for the division of the year into summers and winters, which Thucydides has observed in his first seven books, is continued in the eighth, but is not observed by Xenophon. The rhetorical style of Theopompus, which was the characteristic of his writing, renders it also im- probable that he was the author of the eighth ^ book. It seems the simplest supposition to consider Thucydides himself as the author of this book, " since he names liimself as the author twice (viii. / 6, 60). Cratippus, a contemporary of Thucydides, who also collected what Thucydides had omitted, ascribes this book to Thucydides, remarking at the same time that he has introduced no speeches in it. (Dionys. De Thuct/d. c.lG, ed. Hudson.) ' Marcellinus and the anonymous author of the life of Thucydides also attribute the last book to him. The statement of Cratippus, that Thucydides omitted the speeches in the last book because they impeded the narrative and were wearisome to his readers, is probably merely a conjecture. If Thu- cydides, after writing speeches in the first seven books, discovered that this was a bad historical method, we must assume that if he had lived long enough, he would have struck the speeches out of the first seven books. But this is very improbable ; a man of his character and judgment would hardly begin his work without a settled plan ; and if the speeches were struck out, the work would certainly be defective, and would not present that aspect of ' political affairs, and that judgment upon them, which undoubtedly it was the design of the author to present. Some reasons why there should be no speeches in the eighth book, in accordance with the general plan of Thucydides, are alleged by Kriiger ; and the main reason is that they are not wanted. Whatever may be the reason, the only conclusion that a sound critic can come to is, that ^^ the eighth book is by Thucydides, but that he may not have had the opportunity of revising it with the same care as the first seven books. A saying (?»€7eTa£) is preserved by Diogenes that Xenophon made the work of Thucydides known (ets So^av ijyayev)^ which may be true, as he wrote the first two books of his Hellenica, or the part which now ends with the second book, for the purpose of completing the history. The THUCYDIDES. statement in Diogenes implies that the work of Thucydides might have been lost or forgotten but for Xenophon's care ; and if the statement is true, we may conclude that the manuscript of Thucy- dides in some way came into his possession, and probably the materials which the author had col- lected for the completion of his history. The work of Thucydides, from the commence- ment of the second book, is chronologically divided into summers and winters, and each summer and winter make a year (ii. 1). His summer com- prises the time from the vernal to the autumnal equinox, and the winter comprises the period from the autumnal to the vernal equinox. The division into books and chapters wns probably made by the Alexandrine critics. In the second book he says at the beginning of the 47th chapter, " such was the interment during this winter, and after the winter was over, the first year of the war was ended." He then goes on to say : — " now in the commencement of the summer," which is evidently the beginning of a new year, and of a new division, if he made any division in his history. Again, at the end of the eightieth chapter, he mentions the end of the second year of the war ; and again in the last chapter of the second book he mentions the conclusion of the third year of the war. The third book begins just in the same manner, " In the following summer," as the eighty- first chapter of the second book. There is, then, nothing in the work itself which gives the least intimation that the division into books was part of the author's design ; and in fact, the division into books is made in a very arbitrary and clumsy way. The seventh book ought to end with the sixth chapter of the eighth book ; and the seventh chapter of the eighth book ought to be the first. We may conclude from the terms in which Cratip- pus alhides to the eighth book (to reXiurala ttjj l<rTopias) that the division into books was not then made ; but it existed in the time of Diony- sius (De Thueyd. c. 16, 17, &c.), and when Dio- dorus wrote (xii. 37, xiii. 42). There was a division of the work also into nine books (Diod. xii. 37) ; and a still later division into thirteen books. The title of the work, as well as the division into books, is also probably the work of the critics or grammarians. The titles vary in the MSS., but the simple title '2,vYypa<p-fi is that which is most appropriate to the author's own expression, ©oukuSiStjs 'A67jva7os ^vy4ypal/€ rhu irohefioi', &c. (i. 1). The history of the Peloponnesian war opens the second book of Thucydides, and the first is intro- ductory to the history. He begins his first book by observing that the Peloponnesian war was the most important event in Grecian history, which he shows by a rapid review of the history of the Greeks from the earliest period to the commence- ment of the war (i. 1 — 21). His remarks on the remote periods of Grecian history, such as Hellen and his sons, the naval power of Minos, and the war of Troy, do not express any doubt as to the historical character of these events ; nor was it necessary for the author to express his scepticism ; he has simply stated the main fiicts of early Grecian history in the way in which they were told and generally received. These early events are utterly unimportant, when we view history, as the author viewed the object of his history, as matter for political instruction (i. 22). He de-
 * ' when the winter which follows this summer