20.
Such are the results of my enquiries,1 though the early history of Hellas is of a
kind which forbids implicit reliance on every2 particular of the evidence3.
Men do not discriminate, and are too ready to receive ancient traditions about their
own as well as about other countries.
[2]
For example, most Athenians think that Hipparchus was actually tyrant
when4 he was slain by Harmodius
and Aristogeiton;
they are not aware that Hippias was the eldest of the sons of Peisistratus, and
succeeded him, and that Hipparchus and Thessalus were only his brothers5. At the last moment, Harmodius and Aristogeiton suddenly suspected that Hippias
had been forewarned by some of their accomplices. They therefore abstained from
attacking him, but, wishing to do something before they were seized, and not to risk
their lives in vain, they slew Hipparchus, with whom they fell in near the temple called
Leocorium as he was marshalling the Panathenaic procession.
[3]
There are many other matters, not obscured by time, but contemporary, about which the
other Hellenes are equally mistaken. For example, they imagine that the kings of
Lacedaemon in their council have not one but two votes each6, and that in the army of the
Lacedaemonians there is a division called the Pitanate division7; whereas they never had anything of
the sort.
So little trouble do men take in the search after truth; so readily do they accept
whatever comes first to hand.
1 Or (1), 'Though they may not obtain entire credit, even when the proofs of them are all set down in order.' Or (2), 'Though they will not readily be believed upon a bare recital of all the proofs of them.' Or (3), 'Though it is difficult to set down all the proofs in order, so as to make the account credible.'
2 Vulgar errors.
3 Or (1), 'Though they may not obtain entire credit, even when the proofs of them are all set down in order.' Or (2), 'Though they will not readily be believed upon a bare recital of all the proofs of them.' Or (3), 'Though it is difficult to set down all the proofs in order, so as to make the account credible.'
4 B.C. 514.
5 Cp. 6.54 seqq.
Thucydides translated into English; with introduction, marginal analysis, notes, and indices. Volume 1. Thucydides. Benjamin Jowett. translator. Oxford. Clarendon Press. 1881.
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