Thucydides Reaction Paper

Scott Rawley

Mosaics II

Professor Jankiewickz

January 23RD, 2015

Thucydides Reaction Paper Chapters 6-8

In the book, Thucydides On Justice, Power, and Human Nature, the author takes selections from The History of the Peloponnesian War and allows us to better grasp what happened during this period of time in Greece. A particular part that caught my eye while reading was the beginning of chapter six, when Brasidas marches into Northern Greece and speaks to the people. Brasidas entered the city of Acanthus expecting an ally but soon realized that the people were wary of him and his army. “ As for me, I have come not to harm the Greeks but to free them; and I have bound the Lacedaemonians by the solemn oath that the allies I bring in will be autonomous.  (Woodruff 98).”  This is a very important part of the book as it seems to be one of the higher regarded speeches during this time of war, in which Brasidas speaks to the Ancanthians and seemingly convinces them to join him as allies.

In all honesty, If I had to talk about the most interesting part of chapters six through eight, I would choose the speech of Brasidas. Being a good speaker, is something that I have always been impressed by and consider it a very underrated skill. Sometimes, It doesn’t even matter what you say, as long as you can carry yourself well, and have a strong clear voice.  I actually took it a step further and tried comparing and contrasting some speeches given this week, considering the recent State of the Union and the multiple inauguration speeches that were given over the last week.  I have always been a strong component of public speaking, so to read about Brasidas speaking in front of an unfavorable crowd of people that believed he was up to no good, was pretty thrilling to myself.