Thucydides and His Intellectual Milieu

Abstract

The chapter examines Thucydides’ intellectual milieu, concentrating on medical theories of the time, rhetoric, and especially the rhetorical use of theories of justice and self-interest. It examines the account of the Plague and the impossibility of isolating a cause, akribeia as a wider aim of medical writers, and Thucydides’ familiarity with intellectual theories, which he then supersedes. Finally, it examines aspects of the presentation of rhetoric and its effects: it focuses on Thucydides’ Plataean Debate and the claims made to justice, law, and convention, comparing Antiphon and Thrasymachus’ theories of justice and Thucydides’ possible contribution to this debate.