The earlier books of the Histories

The earlier books of the Histories contain no precise parallel to a passage such as this. Here the reader and the author share a common inquiry and break beyond the surface narrative to the arguments and decisions that shape it.In this new pattern of narrative we are much more aware of the author and his activities and less likely to be drawn into the illusion that the events of the war are reporting themselves. The omniscient narrator is replaced by a fellow inquirer who, at least from time to time, stops to look more closely at motives, admits his uncertainties and explains his reasoning.