Thucydides may be said to be one of the most highly regarded and respected historians of all time. His work perhaps having one of the most important influences on the writing and recording of history itself. Thucydides own ambition as a respected and unique writer are clear as he writes on himself "My work is not a piece of writing designed to meet the needs of an immediate public but was done to last forever". During Thucydides time (c. 460 - 400) as a writer it is thought that literacy was considered relatively new to the world.
It was much more common to write poetically rather than on a historic basis and even so, most other historians such as Heredotus chose to focus on a narrative style of writing. Contrary to this Thucydides dedicates himself to a level of accuracy in his writing rather than merely telling a story. He gained enormous prestige over the centuries for this and his work was quickly established "classic". His concern with objectivity exerted a strong influence on such later Greco-Roman historians as Polybius and Dio Cassius.Thucydides highly regards the Peleponesian war as the greatest war in Greek History. He bases this on the belief that both rivals; Athens and Sparta were at their peak of power and preparedness just before the immediate cause of the war.
Thucydides argues that the events, which he relates, command attention because they are the greatest in the history of the Greeks. He illustrates how much greater the Peloponnesian war was than any previous historical event in the Greek world and in this regard Thucydides accepts the theory that the magnitude of events determines their importance.By praising the events that Thucydides writes on as well as self-praise for his own actual work he him self sets a level of importance in his writing. Thucydides draws sharp distinction between his work and that of his predecessors. He describes the care, which he took in ascertaining the truth about the events he writes of. He claims to have sought out the best possible source, not relying simply on the first informant or his own limited perspective.
It is clear that this would have required a great deal of effort considering different people produced contradictory reconstructions of the same events.Another large part of Thucydides work is based on the many reconstructions of speeches from various orators. He highly regards his own work in this area and claims to have made the best possible reconstructions in his speeches. Thucydides work is perhaps still of great interest today based on the fact that his writing delved largely into human nature itself. He sees and writes on how impressive human nature and life can be at their best, but also how rapidly both can degenerate under stress. Thucydides explains the principles upon which he evaluates evidence; his basic perspective is that human nature is the basic cause of historical events.
In this way Thucydides attributes no historical events to either the gods or fate. Thucydides strongly believed that when faced with a similar problem, all men react in a similar fashion. Perhaps the greatest reason for the importance of Thucydides work however was his unique style. His writing described as straightforward, although compact, rapid and succinct. In the speeches he writes of, Thucydides is said to "strain the language" crowding the maximum of thought in the minimum of words.
Ancient critics mention his neglect for elegance, which further supports his emphasis on a level of accuracy rather than telling a story.Thucydides was also said to be strongly interested and influenced in drama, probably resulting in his tragic style. Thucydides believed in history as a lesson, constructing his book in preconceived patterns aimed to apply lessons in morality as well as in history. He believed his accounts of the war could reveal the circumstances in which the war eventuated, in the hope that it would be read and understood by future generations effectively preventing future conflict.
Thucydides did not simply produce an excellent history of a particular war.He transformed the conception of what history was and could be as thoroughly as anyone who ever attempted to analyse human events. His methods of gathering information and levels of accuracy have earnt him the respectable label of the first "scientific historian" and his unique style have driven him away from the historian norm. Thucydides history is acclaimed more important than all other sources combined in his time. It is these factors in Thucydides work that have held both interest and importance still 2500 years later in the modern world.
