Frases de Tucídides
Tucídides
Data de nascimento: 460
Tucídides, em grego Θουκυδίδης, transl. Thukydídēs, foi um historiador da Grécia Antiga.
Escreveu a História da Guerra do Peloponeso, da qual foi testemunha e participante , em que, em oito volumes, conta a guerra entre Esparta e Atenas ocorrida no século V a.C.. Preocupado com a imparcialidade, ele relata os fatos com concisão e procura explicar-lhes as causas. Tucídides escreveu essa obra pois pensava a Guerra do Peloponeso como um acontecimento de grande relevância para a história da Grécia, mais do que qualquer outra guerra anterior. Esta sua obra é vista no mundo inteiro como um clássico, e representa a primeira obra de seu estilo.
A obra de Tucídides foi revalorizada no ocidente devido à tradução da História da Guerra do Peloponeso para o inglês, por Thomas Hobbes.
Tucídides também foi um dos primeiros a notar que as pessoas que sobreviviam às epidemias de peste em Atenas eram poupadas durante os surtos posteriores da mesma doença, conhecimento importante que num futuro remoto seria a base da vacinação.
Pelo foco no problema da guerra e devido à análise dos conflitos entre as cidades-Estado da Grécia Antiga, a corrente de pensamento teórico realista das Relações Internacionais, no século XX, passou a considerar Tucídides como o "avô" do próprio realismo.
Citações Tucídides
„Again, in our enterprises we present the singular spectacle of daring and deliberation, each carried to its highest point, and both united in the same persons; although usually decision is the fruit of ignorance, hesitation of reflection.“
— Thucydides
Context: Again, in our enterprises we present the singular spectacle of daring and deliberation, each carried to its highest point, and both united in the same persons; although usually decision is the fruit of ignorance, hesitation of reflection. But the palm of courage will surely be adjudged most justly to those, who best know the difference between hardship and pleasure and yet are never tempted to shrink from danger. In generosity we are equally singular, acquiring our friends by conferring, not by receiving, favours.
Book II, 2.40-[3]
„I could have wished that the reputations of many brave men were not to be imperilled in the mouth of a single individual, to stand or fall according as he spoke well or ill. For it is hard to speak properly upon a subject where it is even difficult to convince your hearers that you are speaking the truth.“
— Thucydides
Context: I could have wished that the reputations of many brave men were not to be imperilled in the mouth of a single individual, to stand or fall according as he spoke well or ill. For it is hard to speak properly upon a subject where it is even difficult to convince your hearers that you are speaking the truth. On the one hand, the friend who is familiar with every fact of the story may think that some point has not been set forth with that fullness which he wishes and knows it to deserve; on the other, he who is a stranger to the matter may be led by envy to suspect exaggeration if he hears anything above his own nature. For men can endure to hear others praised only so long as they can severally persuade themselves of their own ability to equal the actions recounted: when this point is passed, envy comes in and with it incredulity.
Book II, 2.35-[1]-[3]
„In generosity we are equally singular, acquiring our friends by conferring, not by receiving, favours.“
— Thucydides
Context: Again, in our enterprises we present the singular spectacle of daring and deliberation, each carried to its highest point, and both united in the same persons; although usually decision is the fruit of ignorance, hesitation of reflection. But the palm of courage will surely be adjudged most justly to those, who best know the difference between hardship and pleasure and yet are never tempted to shrink from danger. In generosity we are equally singular, acquiring our friends by conferring, not by receiving, favours.
Book II, 2.40-[3]
