Generals and particulars in Thucydides (Greece)

This dissertation has two main aims: to explore the types of military intelligence in Thucydides' History, and to establish a parallelism between those kinds of intelligence and the understanding Thucydides intends the reader to derive from his own work. The cognition of intelligent military actors serves as an important key to Thucydides' own historical analysis. The intelligent generals use particular situations to gain knowledge which they can apply generally to subsequent events. The dissertation has three chapters. In each chapter I describe one mode of cognition which is exemplified in the thoughts, speeches, and actions of individuals within the text. The three modes of cognition increase in complexity, but are related to each other. Demosthenes represents the first type, "operational expertise." He knows how to achieve success in land battles of a specific type, and he constructs relatively simple models of the circumstances of battle and of the enemy. Brasidas represents the second type, "psychological expertise." Brasidas' expertise covers not just single engagements, but also the various competing constraints of a military campaign. Brasidas understands people's intentions and goals to a greater extent than Demosthenes, and he knows how to use both friends and enemies in order to achieve his own ends. Perikles represents the third type, "general knowledge." Perikles applies Demosthenes' and Brasidas' modes of analysis in a new way. He devises an Athenian strategy for the war, and he identifies and articulates Athenian goals in the remote future. Perikles' vision is not necessarily better than Demosthenes' or Brasidas' but is applied to more general questions. The main methodology I use is narratology. I look at three main narrative techniques: verbal correspondence, narrative shaping, and focalization. In each chapter I look at various types of pattern in the text that reveal an actor's characteristic mode of cognition. I argue that Thucydides establishes these modes of reasoning as examples of rational analysis for the reader. Thucydides intends the reader to understand the thought processes of actors at the time, without using later events to judge or explain that action.