Thucydides IV, 108, 4

Abstract

. This sentence belongs to a passage in which Thucydides discusses the reactions of the Athenians (108, 1–2) and of their subject allies (108, 3–6) to the fall of Amphipolis. He describes very graphically the incautious enthusiasm with which the allies embarked upon plans for revolt, encouraged by the Athenian failure to save Amphipolis, which closely followed the defeat at Delium, and by the tempting propaganda of Brasidas. The phrase ὅση ὔστeρον διeϕάνη in the sentence quoted above is widely interpreted as a reference to the unexpected recovery of the Athenians in the period after the Sicilian disaster and is accordingly accepted as evidence that this sentence at least, and perhaps the whole discussion to which it belongs, cannot have been written before the closing years of the Peloponnesian war.