Thucydides and Historical Truth

As for the events of the war, I did not consider it proper to report them on the basis of information from the first source that came to hand. Rather I have reported only what I saw myself or what others saw for me after testing their information in detail with the greatest possible care. The truth was hard to discover because reports of the same event by different witnesses were not identical but varied with the observer’s memory or bias.

        This is the way in which the famous Greek historian, Thucyd­ides [thu — SID — e — deez], described how he wrote his history of the war between Athens and Sparta. Thucydides did not just record everything the way he heard it, but tried to find out what actually was true. In doing this he developed many of the methods historians use today.

        One of the most important of his methods was his analysis and use of primary sources. Today historians classify the material they draw information from as either primary or secondary sources. A primary source is a written or oral account by a person who was actually present at an event. A secondary source is an account by a person who was not present at the event, but who heard about it from somebody else.

1.      What indication do you have that Thucydides based his de­scription of the events of the war on primary sources?

2.      Would this probably lead to more accurate history? Why?

3.      Suppose that Thucydides had received the following reports of a naval battle. ~ Which are primary and which are secondary sources?

a.       A description of the battle by an Athenian sailor who was on one of the ships that took part in the fight.

b.      A copy of a speech given by the Athenian commander to the people of Athens after the battle. In this speech he dis­cusses the battle and describes his strategy.

c.       An article by an Athenian who heard accounts of the battle from Athenian sailors and commanders who had taken part in it.

d.      A description by a Spartan who saw the battle from the shore.

Sometimes an account may contain information that is both primary and secondary.

4.      Which is primary and which is secondary information in the following report?

A description by a Spartan who saw the ships leave Sparta and return, and heard reports of the battle from the Spartan sailors.