Because I have been writing another essay that includes Thucydides I have been rereading his history of the Peloponnesian War (434-404 B.C.E.) and loving it even more than I did when I first read it over 50 years ago. I know this is a minority taste.
Over 50 years ago, my professor, the legendary Herman Sinaiko, did not expect us first-year undergraduates to like Thucydides. He warned us that reading Thucydides would be like “chewing sand.” Fair point. I could understand my classmates’ preferrence for Herodotus. Who doesn’t like a storyteller? Over 50 years later and I still remember the one about the queen who only had affairs when she was pregnant. But Thucydides offers me more than stories, he….. well, enough about me.
I promise I’ll finish this sentence and more, but — first — what do you think?
Do you like Thucydides? Stories welcome.
my ex was a philosophy professor who tried to seduce me with Thucydides. it kind of worked, even though i didn't understand much of what he was talking about. I've never read the man but he'll always have a place in my heart.