Before comparing the first pair of

Before comparing the first pair of speeches in Book I with their counterpart in Book VI, it is useful to examine briefly all the speeches of Books I and VI, in order to appreciate the degree to which Thucydides selected them for purposes of comparison. A glance at Figure 2 reveals how closely the speeches in Book VI reflect those of Book I in number, speaker, occasion, and subject.Even this cursory survey should suggest that Books I and VI, chapters 1-93 were planned as a pair. Thucydides has chosen to report parallel sets of speeches at parallel places in the narrative. This evidence corroborates that of the archaeologies and the two statements of alethestate prophasis. When we turn to a more detailed analysis of the speeches themselves, we do so with a broadened perspective, in fact with a double vision which the historian has provided for us. We read Books I and VI together.