History of the Peloponnesian War

But as to the facts of the occurrences of the war, I have thought it my duty to give them, not as ascertained from any chance informant nor as seemed to me probable, but only after investigating with the greatest possible accuracy each detail, in the case both of the events in which I myself participated and of those regarding which I got my information from others.

And the endeavour to ascertain these facts was a laborious task, because those who were eye-witnesses of the several events did not give the same reports about the same things, but reports varying according to their championship of one side or the other, or according to their recollection.

And it may well be that the absence of the fabulous from my narrative will seem less pleasing to the ear; but whoever shall wish to have a clear view both of the events which have happened and of those which will some day, in all human probability, happen again in the same or a similar way—for these to adjudge my history profitable will be enough for me. And, indeed, it has been composed, not as a prize-essay to be heard for the moment, but as a possession for all time.

The greatest achievement of former times was the Persian war, and yet this was quickly decided in two sea-fights[*](Artemisium and Salamis.) and two land-battles.[*](Thermopylae and Plataea.) But the Peloponnesian war was protracted to a great length, and in the course of it disasters befell Hellas the like of which had never occurred in any equal space of time.

Never had so many cities been taken and left desolate, some by the Barbarians,[*](As Colophon (3.34), Mycalessus (7.29.) and others by Hellenes[*](e.g. Plataea (68.3, Thyrea (4.57.) themselves warring against one another; while several, after their capture, underwent a change of inhabitants.[*](2.30, Potidea (2.70, Anactorium (4.49, Scione (5.32, Melos (5.116.) Never had so many human beings been exiled, or so much human blood been shed, whether in the course of the war itself or as the result of civil dissensions.

And so the stories of former times, handed down by oral tradition, but very rarely confirmed by fact, ceased to be incredible: about earthquakes, for instance, for they prevailed over a very large part of the earth and were likewise of the greatest violence; eclipses of the sun, which occurred at more frequent intervals than we find recorded of all former times; great droughts also in some quarters with resultant famines; and lastly- the disaster which wrought most harm to Hellas and destroyed a considerable part of the people—the noisome pestilence. For all these disasters fell upon them simultaneously with this war.