prophasis is used thirty-four times

prophasis is used thirty-four times by Thucydides, in a wide variety of meanings. A glance at the article on the word in LSJ reminds one that this variety is not at all peculiar to Thucydides, for the word is used by many writers in a number of more or less distinctly different meanings, some of them far removed from the presumably original notion of a "showing forth," or "that which shows forth," i.e. "reason," alleged and presumably true.' This meaning remains common in classical writers, but increasingly the meaning of alleged but untrue reason, "pretext," becomes normal. In addition to these, prophasis can mean " cause"' in a quite general, impersonal sense (as distinguished from "reason "), "occasion " or "excuse," and, in the medical writers, it often has the technical meaning of "exciting cause." There are examples of most of these meanings in Thucydides. In the majority of cases the context shows which one is intended, but in a number of passages contextual assistance is inadequate, and three such cases occur in critically important references to the causes of the war.