The State Funeral and the Plague in Thucydides

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  • トウキュディデスの大疫と国葬
  • トウキュディデス ノ ダイエキ ト コクソウ

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Thucydides did not use his customary remarks (τοιαυτα ειπεν and ον θουκυδιδηζ ξυνεγραψεν)-immediately after the Funeral Oration. (II. 47. 1) This paper tries to clarify the causes of these unusual facts and to suggest the necessary background for them. If one assumes that the Funeral Oration was inserted later between the State Funeral and the Plague, and that the State Funeral and the Plague had originally been directly connected, one can see why τοιοσδε μεν ο ταφοζ εγενετο εν τω χειμωνι τουτω was left untouched and τοιαυτα ειπεν had no place when the Funeral Oration was inserted. The deletion of the Funeral Oration from its context reveals a sharp contrast between the State Funeral and the Plague. The fact that this contrast can hardly be detected as long as the Funeral Oration exists at its present place indicates that the Funeral Oration was inserted after the State Funeral and the Plague had been completed. Since Thucydides seems to have hoped to make a contrast between the State Funeral and the Plague, it would have been contrary to his intention to write ον θουκυδιδηζ ξυνεγραψεν here, which would have only helped to sever these two episodes. The composition date of the Funeral Oration cannot be earlier than 404, for its basic theory, that the prosperity of a city-state can only be achieved through two well-balanced pairs, between κοινοζ and ιδιοζ, and λογοζ and εργον, is common to the idea at II. 65, which was clearly written after 404.

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