The most momentous of Schwartz's "d

The most momentous of Schwartz's "doublets' occur in the great tetrad of speeches which Thucydides sets in Sparta before the outbreak of the war. Schwartz ascribes the speech of the Corinthians urging war and that of the Spartan king Archidamus warning against it to Thucydides' early stage. The speech of the Spartan ephor Sthenelaidas precipitating the decision to go to war, and that of the Athenians warning against war, Schwartz assigns to the late period (after the fall of Athens). According to Schwartz, the latter pair precludes the former and was to have replaced it in the final version of the work.The historian's 'development' which results from this-arbitrary, from a literary perspective—distortion of the text is clear. The war-guilt' is transferred from Corinth to Sparta's jealousy'; Athens (and, along with her, Pericles) is exonerated. 'Die geschichtliche Darstellung ist zur Apologie geworden' ('Historiography has turned into apologia.').