Thucydides, ancient Greek historian, known for her writing History of the Peloponnesian War between her of Athens and Sparta is recognized as one of the first true historians.
With the introduction of the method of historical causality, ie the search for the deeper causes of an event, he was the first to approach history in a scientific way, consulting extensively written documents and conversing with people who participated or even starred in the events he described.
Also noteworthy is the fact that he was aware of the importance of his work for future generations. His historical text had a great influence on historians and is still studied by political scientists, as he is considered his father. political realism as an approach to the study of international affairs. This war is recorded by the "founder of scientific historiography", Thucydides, who wishes to make the writing of κτῆμα ἐς ἀεὶ, a wish that came true, since for 2.500 years, his work remains relevant, offering readers a necessary war but and a political handbook, from which they draw information about the facts, while learning timeless lessons about human nature, so that they can understand and deal with similar situations in their personal life. their life.
Thucydides, in his third book of history, interrupts the historical narrative and makes a general view of the effects of the war on a social, political and psychological level. The Pathology of the war, as this deviation was called, is based on the civil war of Corfu but concerns all Greek cities, as the historian points out: "civil strife took place everywhere". Impressive is the fact that Thucydides inserts in the historical events his personal judgments about the results of the war, when all his work is inspired by objectivity and logical thinking, without any involvement of emotional and metaphysical approach.
But one can justify the sociological view of the war conflicts by admitting that: "Civil conflicts have brought great and innumerable calamities to the states, calamities that are and will always be as long as human nature does not change…". The historian, through this expansion of the Corfiot conflict into a conflict of democrats and oligarchs throughout the Greek world, focuses on human psychology, interpreting the conflict "as a basic manifestation of human nature, the result of partisan and individual passions that liberate linguistic meaning and moral description ", as Zagorin points out.
The civil war of Corfu is considered by Thucydides to be the fiercest that had ever happened and was an excellent example to study. This instigator of passions overturns all the values that prevail in a time of peace and terribly changes the use of concepts according to Lesky. Thucydides emphasizes the effects of war through the contrast of the situations that prevail in a period of peace and in a period of conflict.
In times of peace, cities and citizens adopt a moral and noble attitude because they are not pressed by terrible needs. On the contrary, war leads people to deprivation and their daily prosperity turns into provocation, violence and a change of principles and values. The historian, very aptly, gives the war the face of the teacher of violence. This situation shapes people's behaviors, as violence and immorality, the domination of the instinct of self-preservation, the perversion of morals, deceit and competition, the brutality of thought and of operations.
The importance and value of Thucydides's views is evident from the fact that similar concerns about the use of language and the passions caused by the civil war are expressed in modern times.
George Orwell in his utopian novel 1984 describes a power-hungry society where language becomes a weapon in the hands of the ruling party that changes the meanings of words to manipulate and manipulate. The three slogans that prevail in "1984" are "War is peace", "Freedom is slavery" and "Ignorance is power". In this context, the Ministry of Peace deals with war, the Ministry of Truth with lies, the Ministry of Love with torture.
In conclusion, one can say that the approach of Thucydides's thought based on the attitude of Corfu as a desire to leave an "estate forever" became a practice. The social reality in which this war is taking place is dominated by the fragile balance between the two sides, oligarchic and democratic, the disruption of which creates the civil conflict. The outbreak of the conflict marks the relentless struggle of the factions for power. And if the corruption of language is only one side of human anguish for supremacy over others, let us think about how many more aspects Thucydides revealed in his work and especially in his Pathology in order to finally expose his inhumanity of man…
