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Thucydides, Herodotos, and the Causes of War

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

R. Sealey
R. Sealey
Affiliation:
University College of North Wales, Bangor
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Extract

All wars have causes; some have pretexts. When Polybios (6. 6. 1–7. 3) distinguishes between the cause, the pretext, and the beginning of war, his language sounds curiously modern. When he summarizes the causes of the Second Punic War the modern reader is not so satisfied. The war was due, in his opinion, to the indignation of Hamilcar Barca, who had to accept peace when he could have continued fighting in Sicily; to the anger of the Carthaginians, when they were forced to surrender Sardinia; and to the good fortune which attended their armies in Spain. A more recent account differs from Polybios not only on matters of detail. ‘It is true that it was Hannibal's attack on Saguntum, undertaken in full knowledge of the almost inevitable consequences, that precipitated the war, but the historian must decide that, so far as attack and defence have a meaning in the clash between states, the balance of aggression must incline against Rome.’

Type
Articles
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 7 , Issue 1-2 , January 1957 , pp. 1 - 12
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1957

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References

page 1 note 1 I should like to thank the editors of the Classical Quarterly for drawing my attention to the papers by Pearson and Kirkwood; also Messrs. C. J. Williams and M. J. F. Wynn for listening to a preliminary and confused exposition of my thesis.

page 1 note 2 ‘Prophasis and Aitia’, T.A.P.A. lxxxiii (1952), 205–23.Google Scholar

page 1 note 3 ‘Thucydides‘ Words for “Cause”′;, A.J.P. lxxiii (1952), 37–61.Google Scholar

page 2 note 1 Pearson, , p. 212, observes that ‘the so-called medical use’ occurs at Dem. 2. 9; cf. [Dem.] 11. 7; Plat. Rep. 8. 556 e.Google Scholar

page 3 note 1 Cf. Pearson, , p. 206, n. 7.Google Scholar

page 4 note 1 Cf. Winnington-Ingram, R.P. on the tragic theme of retaliation in F.H.S. lxxiv (1954), 17–18.Google Scholar

page 8 note 1 Xen. Hell. 3. 2. 21-23.

page 8 note 2 Thuc. 1. 126. 1.

page 10 note 1 Thuc. 2. 68; A(thenian) T(ribute) L(ists), iii.320, n.84.

page 10 note 2 A.T.L. iii. 320.But the meaning of , which can be used tendsntiously, requires examination.Google Scholar

page 11 note 1 A.T.L. iii. 64–65.Google Scholar

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