I treat: (1) the aitia-prophasis di

I treat: (1) the aitia-prophasis distinction of 23.5–6 and its consequences; (2) the Pentecontaetia retrospect; and (3) the Pausanias-Themistocles retrospects. I cover the usual questions. How does the aitiai-prophasis distinction work? Is it coherent? Why are the retrospects placed where they are? What is Thucydides’ relationship to his predecessors? How good is his historical judgement? Is there a ‘composition-question’? Are Badian’s claims tenable? Above all, is Thucydides’ text, or at least this part, ‘open’ or ‘closed’? Pelling judges: ‘Where Herodotus opens questions up, Thucydides’ tendency is to close them down, to impose a single “monologic” view imperiously on his readers. His causal questions have answers, and he cares that his audience should get them right’.