Thucydides’ attention to natural phenomena, such as the plague, volcanoes, earthquakes, eclipses and floods, is well known. These are uncontrollable events that typically cause enormous environmental, political and military disturbance, further heightening the unpredictability and destructiveness of a war that, from the outset, is characterised as a great movement (kinesis megiste). But it is not only catastrophic natural phenomena that pique the Athenian historian’s interest. As we aim to demonstrate in this study, nature and natural phenomena impose themselves as active forces that are superior to man, interfering in the Peloponnesian War with significant political consequences. On the other hand, the bellicose actions of man impose themselves upon nature with grave environmental costs.
University of Coimbra, Portugal - ORCID: 0000-0001-8153-2014
Chapter Title
Nature and natural phenomena in Thucydides’ The Peloponnesian War: physis and kinesis as factors of political disturbance
Authors
Martinho Soares
Language
English
DOI
10.36253/978-88-5518-612-4.05
Peer Reviewed
Publication Year
2022
Copyright Information
© 2022 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Book Title
Crises (Staseis) and Changes (Metabolai)
Book Subtitle
Athenian Democracy in the Making
Editors
Breno Battistin Sebastiani, Delfim Ferreira Leão
Peer Reviewed
Number of Pages
140
Publication Year
2022
Copyright Information
© 2022 Author(s)
Content License
Metadata License
Publisher Name
Firenze University Press
DOI
10.36253/978-88-5518-612-4
ISBN Print
978-88-5518-611-7
eISBN (pdf)
978-88-5518-612-4
eISBN (epub)
978-88-5518-613-1
eISBN (xml)
978-88-5518-614-8
Series Title
Studi e saggi
Series ISSN
2704-6478
Series E-ISSN
2704-5919