Ross Shaler
University of Florida, Classics, Graduate Student
Research Interests:
Throughout the Histories, Thucydides is sensitive to the significance of an individual’s perception of events to that individual’s actions. His regular use of verbs such as αἰσθάνομαι—Xenophon is the only extant writer to use it more... more
Throughout the Histories, Thucydides is sensitive to the significance of an individual’s perception of events to that individual’s actions. His regular use of verbs such as αἰσθάνομαι—Xenophon is the only extant writer to use it more frequently—and ὁράω is a testament to the important role that perception plays in the Histories (University of Chicago, Perseus Digital Library, s.v. “αἰσθάνομαι”, http://perseus.uchicago.edu). Thucydides consistently emphasizes that the “fog of war” and lack of perception often shape the course of events. In this paper, I will investigate Thucydides’ presentation of misperception in his narrative of events in north-western Greece and the Chalcidian Peninsula from 433 to 4321 and the significance of this for our understanding of warfare in the Histories.