The History of the Peloponnesian War tells the story of the Peloponnesian War in Ancient Greece. It was written by Thucydides, an Athenian general who served in that war. The war was fought between the "Peloponnesian League" (led by Sparta) and the "Athenian league" (led by Athens). The war lasted more than 20 years.
Many historians regard this "History" of Thucydides as one of the earliest scholarly works of history.
Thucydides' "History" made a number of contributions to early historiography. Many of his principles have become standard methods of history writing today, though others have not.
One of Thucydides' major innovations was to use a strict standard of chronology, recording events by year, each year consisting of the summer campaigning season and a less active winter season. As a result, events that span several years are divided up and described in parts of the book that are sometimes quite distant from one another, causing the impression that he is oscillating between the various theatres of conflict. This method contrasts sharply with Herodotus' earlier work "The Histories", which jumps around chronologically.
Another feature of the work is that Thucydides writes dozens of speeches of the most important figures who were engaged in the war. Thucydides heard some of these speeches himself but some of the speeches he wrote without knowing exactly what was really spoken.
Thucydides wanted his writings "to last for ever" (1.22.4). Therefore he tried to be as neutral as possible though as general of Athens that was difficult for him.
The gods play no active role in Thucydides' work. This is very different to Herodotus, who frequently mentions the role of the gods. Instead, Thucydides regards history as being caused by the choices and actions of human beings.
The "History" concentrates on the military aspects of the Peloponnesian War, but it uses these events as a medium to suggest several other themes as well, for instance to show degenerative effects of war on humanity itself.
For the most part, the "History" does not discuss topics such as the art and architecture of Greece, but speaks of the development of military technologies
rather often.
The "History" explains that the cause of the Peloponnesian War was the "growth in power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Sparta" (1.23.6). The Spartans represent a more traditional and less expansive power.
Thucydides almost never names his informants. This is in contrast to Herodotus, who frequently mentions multiple versions of his stories and allows the reader to decide which is true.
Thucydides' "History" has been enormously influential in both ancient and modern historiography.
Historiography
Historiography is about the writing of history and the use of historical methods. Thus it looks at authors, sources, interpretation, style, bias, and audience. It is sometimes called "the history of history". The word historiography can also refer to a body of historical work.
For thousands of years people have been telling stories about the past, and making written records of the actions of kings and prophets and other famous persons. After 500 BC, they began writing more organized histories.
Written history appeared first with the ancient Greeks, whose historians greatly contributed to the development of historical methodology. The very first historical works were "The Histories" composed by Herodotus of Halicarnassus (484 BC–ca.425 BC), who became later known as the 'father of history' (Cicero).
Thucydides was the first to distinguish between cause and immediate origins of an event, and his successor Xenophon (ca. 431–355 BC) introduced autobiographical elements and character studies in his Anabasis.
The Romans adopted the Greek tradition, becoming the first people to write history in a non-Greek language. The most famous writers are Julius Caesar's (100 BC–44 BC) "Bellum Gallicum".
Livy (59 BC–AD 17) who records the rise of Rome from city-state to world dominion.
Plutarch (c. 46 - 127) and Suetonius (c. 69-after 130) introduced biography as a branch of history. Tacitus (c. 56–c. 117) criticizes Roman immorality by praising German virtues.
Writing history was popular among Christian monks and clergy in the Middle Ages. They wrote about the history of Jesus Christ, the Church and of their patrons, the dynastic history of the local rulers. In the Early Middles Ages historical writing often took the form of annals or chronicles recording events year by year but this style tended to hampered the analysis of events and causes. An example of this type of writing are Anglo-Saxon Chronicles which were the work of several different writers and start during the reign of Alfred the Great in the late 9th century and one copy of which was still being updated in 1154.
History was written about states or nations during the Renaissance. The study of history changed during the Enlightenment and Romanticism. Voltaire described the history of certain ages that were important according to him, instead of describing events in a chronological order. History became an independent discipline. It was not called "philosophia historiae" anymore, but merely history ("historia").
Modern historiography began with Leopold Ranke in the 19th century, who was very critical on the sources used in history.
The French Annales School radically changed history during the 20th century. Fernand Braudel wanted history to become more scientific by demanding more mathematical evidence in history, in order to make the history discipline less subjective. Furthermore, he added a social-economic and geographic framework to answer historical questions. Other French historians, like Philippe Ariès and Michel Foucault described history of daily life topics such as death and sexuality. They wanted history to be written about all topics and that all questions should be asked.
Historical journals for academic historians to exchange ideas started in the nineteenth century. The early journals were similar to the academic journals used in the physical sciences, and were seen as a means by which history could be professionalised. Journals also helped historians to establish various historiographical approaches, the most notable example of which was "Annales. Économies. Sociétés. Civilisations." a publication instrumental in establishing the Annales School.
The question of how a historian approaches historical events is one of the most important questions within historiography. It is commonly recognised by historians that, in themselves, individual historical facts are not particularly meaningful. Such facts will only become useful when assembled with other historical evidence, and the process of assembling this evidence is understood as a particular historiographical approach.
Some of the more common historigraphical approaches are:
Determinism means that historians view history as being caused more by certain factors than by other factors. The two most common types of determinism are geographic determinism and economic determinism. Geographic determinism means that historians think history is mostly caused by geography. Frederick Jackson Turner was a proponent of geographic determinism. Economic determinism means that historians think history is mostly caused by economics. Charles Beard was a proponent of economic determinism. Other historians believe that history is caused mostly by politics or mostly by a struggle for natural rights, but these are usually not labeled as determinism.
Historical method
The historical method are the techniques and guidelines by which historians use primary sources and other evidence to research and then to write history.
Following Garraghan (in: "A Guide to Historical Method", 168) puts six questions that should be answered as minimal standard for a sound historical method:
Primary source