Thucydides

This chapter starts with a discussion of Thucydides’ famous description of wartime stasis in 3.82, including his account of transvaluations in 3.82.4. It then reassesses the historical context of Thucydides’ reflections on language and stasis ; after that, it looks at several key passages where Thucydides shows the effect of the war on discourse, including the Melian Dialogue. Thucydides emerges as a writer who is overwhelmingly concerned with the way that war warps both evaluative language and practices of listening, but who sets out to rectify these effects through his own text. The chapter finishes with a revisionary treatment of Thomas Hobbes’ understanding of Thucydides.