A principle of fundamental importan

A principle of fundamental importance, if it is valid, for the interpretation of the Pentekontaetia is laid down by the authors of A.T.L. ii in its most rigorous terms: it is that Thucydides has set events 'in proper order… without any deviation whatever'. The conclusion appears to the present writer to be founded ultimately on a false assumption about Thucydides' purpose in these chapters (89-118.2), namely that he set out to write an outline history of the period of fifty years to which he refers in 118.2 and, in effect, in 97. An examination of these passages reveals that it is not the outline of a period as a period that is offered, but rather the account of a particular theme or process falling within the period: his purpose in presenting the theme there defined is to be seen from the setting of the excursus as a unit in book 1 rather than from the statement in 97.2: the due significance of this last, and of the demarcation of a period in 118.2, is to be seen only in this wider context.