The Peloponnesian War
Throughout time, man has tried to accurately record and portray the events of their own period. This was done for many reasons, but the great historians used this tool to try and give future generations something to evaluate and learn from. Thucydides, one of the first great historians, who was a citizen of ancient Athens, tried to do this very deed. His book The History of the Peloponnesian War has been an accurate account of history from which many have been able to contemplate. Ideas and errors from this time have in many ways shaped the society that we live in today. Thucydides made a valiant effort towards making sure that the people to come would know about their ancestors. Sliding to the other side of the spectrum, my paper written the first week of school, on the scandals plaguing the Clinton administration is to be considered completely unfactual. That's not to say that the things I wrote about did not happen, in fact they did. However, the paper was written completely from memory of events which have taken place over the last six years or so. The brain may be an amazing organ, but surely not accurate enough to base history on. No formal research was performed, and in fact, I wrote
In no way would I even think to mention my essay on the Clinton scandals to be factual, much less historical. My insight is that of a news stand junkie whose bias is just added on to that which has been handed down. Thucydides was able to create and follow through with the idea of documenting history, and becoming one of the pioneering historians, entirely so his predecessors would be able to understand and learn from the events in the past. That makes him a great historian, and an even better humanitarian. background information as well. "The Melians are a colony from Sparta. They had refused to join the Athenian empire like the other islanders, and at first had remained neutral without helping either side" (400). Again he went on to retell both sides arguments in the matter, and summarized the outcome without tainting the material with objectionable bias. Thucydides seemed to be able to capture the feelings and concerns of the people, and through his choice of words, portray the entire war as though he was sitting in his easy chair telling a story. Thucydides on the other hand was in the midst of the Peloponnesian war throughout its stay. The amazing thing about his accounts is that even though he was an Athenian citizen, he was able to remain unbiased for the most part when dealing with the actual accounts of battles and so forth. Thucydides was able to reiterate several debates and discussions of
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 958
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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