Political history and the study of politics: Book I of Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War (Greece)

This study offers an introduction to Thucydides' intent. It attempts to clarify how Thucydides, as a teacher of politics, conceives political history. I argue that his History, which appears limited to relating the practical events of a single political event and which offers no explicit teaching on politics, establishes the necessary foundations for those theoretical investigations traditionally associated with political philosophy. Thucydides' work does so because his unique treatment of the war between the Peloponnesians and Athenians, and especially his unique treatment of the speeches and deeds of the work's actors, captures a naive or common sense understanding of practical political affairs. The virtue of his treatment of the "common sense understanding" consists in its ability to invite political investigation without distorting the understanding that makes such an investigation possible.; To uncover Thucydides' intent, this study focuses on Book I of the History and the treatment of political justice and political power at its heart. The importance of Book I's presentation of political justice and political power follows from Thucydides' effort to establish the surpassing greatness of the war he relates, an effort that requires him to reveal the clear truth about those things that have happened, including the oldest things or the first things. This treatment of Book I concludes that regimes like Periclean Athens supply the necessary political conditions for one to undertake theoretical reflection about justice, power and the first things---conditions that Thucydides' indirect manner of procedure both effects and reflects. And because it establishes the importance of Periclean political conditions to his theoretical intent, Thucydides' History offers a new understanding of the relationship between theory and practice.; Thucydides' conception of political history thus offers a supplement to the more direct and more explicit political studies of Plato and Aristotle while also pointing to their potential limits. This study differs from the more recent efforts to establish the moral relevance of Thucydides' political work because it situates his treatment of moral and political phenomena within his broader, theoretical concern for preserving the possibility of a genuine engagement with and study of political life.