The uncertainty as to the date of Thucydides' birth renders futile any discussion of the fact that before 431 he took no prominent part in Athenian politics. If he was born in 455, the fact needs no explanation ; if in 471, it is possible that his oppor tunities were modified by the necessity of frequent visits to Thrace, where the management of such an important property as the gold-mines must have claimed his presence. The manner in which he refers to his personal influence in that region is such as to suggest that he had sometimes resided there (iv. 105, I). He was at Athens in the spring of 43o, when the plague broke out. If his account of the symptoms has not enabled physicians to 'See Jebb's Attic Orators, i. 35.
agree on a diagnosis of the malady, it is at least singularly full and vivid. He had himself been attacked by the plague ; and, as he briefly adds, "he had seen others suffer." The turning point in the life of Thucydides came in the winter of 424. He was then 47 (or, according to Busolt, about 36), and for the first time he is found holding an official position. He was one of two generals entrusted with the command of the regions towards Thrace era E7ri Op4Kns), a phrase which denotes the whole Thracian seaboard from Macedonia eastward to the vicinity of the Thracian Chersonese, though often used with more special reference to the Chalcidic peninsula. His colleague in the com mand was Eucles. About the end of Nov. 424 Eucles was in Am phipolis, the stronghold of Athenian power in the north-west. To guard it with all possible vigilance was a matter of peculiar urgency at that moment. The ablest of Spartan leaders, Brasidas (q.v.), was in the Chalcidic peninsula, where he had already gained rapid success; and part of the population between that peninsula and Amphipolis was known to be disaffected to Athens. Under such circumstances we might have expected that Thucydides who had seven ships of war with him, would have been ready to co operate with Eucles. It appears, however, that, with his ships, he was at the island of Thasos when Brasidas suddenly appeared be fore Amphipolis. Eucles sent in all haste for Thucydides, who ar rived with his ships from Thasos just in time to beat off the enemy from Eion at the mouth of the Strymon, but not in time to save Amphipolis. The profound vexation and dismay felt at Athens found expression in the punishment of Thucydides, who was exiled.
From 423 to 404 Thucydides lived on his property in Thrace, but much of his time appears to have been spent in travel. He visited the countries of the Peloponnesian allies (cf. his account
of the battle of Mantineia in 418, the Spartan version of the story), recommended to them by his quality as an exile from Athens; and he thus enjoyed the rare advantage of contemplating the war from various points of view. He speaks of the increased leisure which his banishment secured to his study of events. He refers partly, doubtless, to detachment from Athenian politics, partly also, we may suppose, to the opportunity of visiting places signalized by recent events and of examining their topography. The local knowledge which is often apparent in his Sicilian books was acquired at this period. He visited Syracuse after the siege was over. This is shown by the accuracy of his topography, and by the fact that his knowledge of affairs at Athens contemporary with the siege came to an end at the time of the departure from Athens of the last reinforcements sent to Syracuse, showing that he drew information from the Athenian prisoners. The mind of Thucydides was naturally judicial, and his impartiality (which seems almost superhuman by contrast with Xenophon's Hellenica) was in some degree a result of temperament. But it cannot be doubted that the evenness with which he holds the scales was greatly assisted by his experience during these years of exile.
His own words make it clear that he returned to Athens, at least for a time, in 404, though the precise date is uncertain. The older view was that he returned some six months after Athens surrendered to Lysander. More probably he was recalled by the special resolution carried by Oenobius prior to the acceptance of Lysander's terms (Busolt, ibid., p. 628). The preponderance of testimony certainly goes to show that he died in Thrace, and by violence. It would seem that, when he wrote chapter 116 of his third book, he was ignorant of an eruption of Etna which took place in 396. There is indeed, strong reason for thinking that he did not live later than 399. The abruptness with which the History breaks off agrees with the story of a sudden death. The historian's daughter is said to have saved the unfinished work and to have placed it in the hands of an editor. This editor, according to one account, was Xenophon, to whom Diogenes Laertius (ii. 6, 13) assigns the credit of having "brought the work into reputation, when he might have suppressed it." The tradition is, however, very doubtful; it may have been suggested by a feeling that no one then living could more appropriately have discharged the office of literary executor than the writer who, in his Hellenica, continued the narrative.