HUME, ECHOED by Kant, said the firs

HUME, ECHOED by Kant, said the first page of Thucydides was the commencement of real history. I But it is a puzzling and difficult beginning-an idiosyncratic introduction to as complex an argument as is to be found anywhere in the eight books of the work or indeed in all the pages of ancient historical writing. After a brief statement of the anticipated greatness of the subject matter, the grand and potentially moving theme of the nature of the Peloponnesian War is abandoned for a digression arguing that early Greek history was all on a small scale. This section, commonly called the •• Archaeology, " demands a reader of exceptional patience and determination. The ancient critics sometimes deplored fts difficult style and peculiar arrangement, explaining how Thucydides should have written the introduction to his work.2 Modem scholars have been troubled by the difficult language and complexity of arrangement; the greatest of them, Wilamowitz, admitted that "in spite of its deliberate structure" the first book remained to him "a chaos."3