It does not detract from this remar

It does not detract from this remarkable achievement to point out certain details that reveal some of the limits, or risks, in this method. These were beyond Thucydides' control. He was as prudent or as bold as the difficulties facing him and the tools at his disposal entailed. If we, after the fact, sometimes charge him with being inexact, it is because reason alone in the end could not carry such an undertaking to a perfect result. To criticize the affirmations of Thucydides' Archaeology in light of the facts is thus to apply, to some extent, the method of reasoning to history. Thucydides never lapsed into serious error. We can say, however, that in his exposition of the facts he is almost too rational, to the extent that he carries out a type of historical unification.