The question arises: did Thucydides, too, see here an opportunity to circumvent the war? Or, more cautiously expressed, did he see here the point at which—if at all—the events tending towards war could have been halted?The introduction to the following speech suggests a positive answer.Thucydides dramatizes Archidamus' entrance to the extent that he reports the majority of the Spartans (after their allies and the Athenians had been shown out) to have been already in favor of a speedy beginning to the hostilities. The king's speech thus acquires the weight of the last chance for peace. Wassermann has shown that the historian was at pains to make of his Archidamus, in respect of personality and dignity, a worthy counterpart to Pericles.