What are some important speeches in Thucydides "The History of the Peloponnesian War".

by MrEmmental

Hey everyone, I'm a student teacher and I am creating a unit plan on Ancient Greece. I am currently working on a lesson on the Peloponnesian War with particular emphasis on Thucydides and the validity of primary sources. My plan is to have students discuss and assess select speeches from the text that address the causes of the war and the perspectives of its main participants (chiefly Athens and Sparta). I read Thucydides about three years ago and based on my recollection I have identified Pericles' funeral oration and the Melian Dialogue to be significant. However, I would like at least two more passages for students to read that address the causes of the war and the Spartan perspective. What would people suggest? For the sake of accessibility I will likely use the Project Gutenberg edition of the text, rather than a particular published version.

edXcitizen87539319

Some options:

  • 1.80 to 1.86 for the Spartan perspective at the start of the war

Excerpt (from Gutenberg):

What then is to be our war? For unless we can either beat them at sea, or deprive them of the revenues which feed their navy, we shall meet with little but disaster. Meanwhile our honour will be pledged to keeping on, particularly if it be the opinion that we began the quarrel. For let us never be elated by the fatal hope of the war being quickly ended by the devastation of their lands. I fear rather that we may leave it as a legacy to our children; so improbable is it that the Athenian spirit will be the slave of their land, or Athenian experience be cowed by war.

  • 3.53 to 3.67 for speeches of Plataeans and Thebans to the Spartans

Excerpt (from Gutenberg):

Who then merit the detestation of the Hellenes more justly than you, you who sought their ruin under the mask of honour? The former virtues that you allege you now show not to be proper to your character; the real bent of your nature has been at length damningly proved: when the Athenians took the path of injustice you followed them.

  • 6.89 to 6.92 for the speech of Alcibiades to the Spartans

Excerpt (from Gutenberg):

[M]y worst enemies are not you who only harmed your foes, but they who forced their friends to become enemies; and love of country is what I do not feel when I am wronged, but what I felt when secure in my rights as a citizen.

You'll have to read the whole speeches and judge the context to see if they'll fit your lesson plan.

(edit: spelling)