The ingenious suggestion that proph

The ingenious suggestion that prophasis here means the historian's explanation cannot be proved impossible, but is to be rejected, in my opinion, for the following reasons. First, in I, 23, the very form of the sentence demands that aitiai and prophasis have the same point of reference. The contrast prophasis ... aitiai has real force only if this is so. If prophasis means Thucydides’ explanation, the parallel that is implied, especially in the word Aeyópevat, is lost. Secondly, in the examination of Thucydides' words for cause to which we now turn, we shall discover that both prophasis and aitia have regularly in Thucydides a subjective reference, that is, they are concerned with the emotions of, or the influences on, the persons participating in the events, and do not mean the historian's objective analysis of the situation.