Of the battle in the harbor at Syra

Of the battle in the harbor at Syracuse little need be said. Although modern scholars have often complained that the strategy receives insufficient attention, the passage is powerfully written, and one of the best examples of Thucydides' technique of vividness. Plutarch's comment on the passage points the way to an appreciation of this aspect of Thucydides' work: "The most effective historian is the one who makes his narrative like a painting by giving a visual quality to the sufferings and characters. Thucydides certainly always strives after this vividness in his writing, eagerly trying to transform his reader into a spectator and to let the sufferings that were so dazzling and upsetting to those who beheld them have a similar effect on those who read about them" (Plutarch On the Fame of the Athenians ch. 3, Moralia 347 Af.). The technique moves the reader beyond tactics and strategy to an awareness of the psychological importance and implications of the battle.