Thug (THAG As for the subject)

Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)

or THAG As for the subject of Thucydides' history, if the Peloponnesian War was not a matter of importance in universal history, it was at least not Thucydides' fault that he was not a contemporary with some more important war. But we may beg leave to doubt whether the Peloponnesian War was of inferior interest for the fortunes of mankind. Had it not been for the exhaustion it induced, Greece would not have succumbed to the Macedonian, and consequently Alexander's conquests would never have spread Greek culture over the ancient world. But, apart from this, Thucydides' history is the history of the effects of empire on an imperial state; and, as such, will always be of enthralling interest to citizens of sovereign communities. Finally, Thucydides' style, criticized by Dionysius and condemned by Mure, is (in the speeches) difficult beyond all possibility of dispute. To throw the blame of this obs obscurity on the unformed condition of Attic Greek at the time when Thucydides wrote is warrantable indeed, but is no adequate defense. To point, on the other hand, to the tract "On the Athenian Polity" as proof that Attic prose could be translucent in Thucydides' time is beside the point, for Attic, as is well known, could only be written well by those who lived continuously in Athens, and Thucydides was exiled for many a year. But, in truth, the question whether it is Thucydides or the literary age in which he lived that is to be blamed for his obscurity is a wholly irrelevant question. Obscurity, whatever be its cause, is a crime in a writer. But it is a crime which carries its own punishment, for it diminishes the number of an author's readers. The exact amount of criminality is not to be determined on any abstract principles or to judge. by the exercise of any mysterious " taste "; it admits of one simple practical test - viz., has the obscurity of his style (in so far as it exists), as a matter of fact, prevented him from attaining fame? In the case of Thucydides it has had no such effect, as all testify. People will not read a difficult author if there is an easier one out of whom they can get as much. That Thucydides has, in spite of his difficulty sufficient testimony that there is no other , always been read is in itself historian to rank with him. the N. provinces of India to a member