Thucydides, an Athenian, wrote the history of the war between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians, beginning at the moment that it broke out, and believing it would be a great war and more worthy of relation than any war that had preceded it … The absence of romance in my history will, I fear, detract somewhat from its interest; but if it be judged useful by those inquirers who desire an exact knowledge of the past as an aid to the interpretation of the future, which in the course of human things must resemble if it does not reflect it, I shall be content. In fine, I have written my work, not as an essay which is to win the applause of the moment, but as a possession for all time.
History of the Peloponnesian War (1:1:1; 1:22:4), pp. 3,16 of The Landmark Thucydides – in contrast to Christian historiography
– in contrast to Christian historiography
With reference to the narrative of events, far from permitting myself to derive it from the first source that came to hand, I did not even trust my own impressions, but it rests partly on what I saw myself, partly on what others saw for me, the accuracy of the report being always tried by the most severe and detailed tests possible. My conclusions have cost me some labor from the want of coincidence between accounts of the same occurrences by different eye-witnesses, arising sometimes from imperfect memory, sometimes from undue partiality for one side or the other.
History of the Peloponnesian War (1:22:2-3), pp. 15-16 of The Landmark Thucydides – in contrast to the “fact check” procedures of Christian historiography
– in contrast to the “fact check” procedures of Christian historiography