The author of the classic Literary Texts and the Greek Historian (London and New York 2000) is the perfect choice to provide a CGLC ‘literary’ commentary on Thucydides’ most unified, expansive and resonant narrative. Commentaries in English do of course exist: but Kenneth Dover’s (A.W. Gomme, A. Andrewes and K.J. Dover (eds), A Historical Commentary on Thucydides, Vol. IV: Books V.25–VII (Oxford 1970), Dover did books 6–7), is relentlessly historical; Simon Hornblower’s commentary (Commentary on Thucydides, Vol. 3: Books V.24–VIII (Oxford 2008)) is admirably attentive to literary questions though not geared towards grammar or style for the student reader; Martha Taylor’s Thucydides’s Melian Dialogue and Sicilian Expedition: A Student Commentary (Norman 2019), never mentioned by Pelling, is for the student (and includes 2.65 and the Melian dialogue), yet has little besides grammar, which is pitched for a lower level. Pelling’s work cites Hornblower constantly and Dover frequently, but strives on his own account to cover historical, even topographic information (he provides a conscientiously detailed commentary on 6.1–5’s informative but unappealing ‘archaeology’, which does not at all resemble its fascinating but speculative counterpart in 1.2–20). Pelling admits, however, to being primarily interested in what Thucydides himself means to express in his narrative, and the picture his readers are likely to build from it. (A useful list of notes heavy on historical matters is given in the introduction.)
The book’s distinctive feature is its helpfulness for readers advanced enough in Greek to be reading Thucydides but doing so for the first time, with full and frequent explanations of vocabulary and syntax. It also lives up to its author’s reputation for apt and often witty observations on its Thucydidean context, the great historiographic issues (sources, characterization, military, political and ethical themes), its ancient influences (Homer and Herodotus) and reception (Diodorus and Dionysius of Halicarnassus, as always for Thucydides, and especially his beloved Plutarch, whose Nicias and Alcibiades (but also other works) are recalled constantly).
In fact, the great attraction of book 6 (the limit of this review) is the inclusion of two major speeches each by three brilliant, influential and flawed leaders, Hermocrates, Nicias and Alcibiades. These and indeed all the speeches are lavished with attention by Pelling. Within the commentary there are detailed introductions to each on content and style, helpful and provocative notes on individual questions of argumentation, background, word choice and Thucydides’ eccentric phrasing and word order; the volume introduction also has a section on Thucydides’ general speech practice and comparative categories of analysis (venues, characterization, effectiveness, inter-speech links). Now that this book exists, I could imagine the Greek portion of a reading course on books 6–7 consisting mainly of the debates at Athens, Syracuse, then Camarina, then Alcibiades at Sparta; this is 23 pages (25 if the debate in indirect statement of the Athenian generals is added) out of 50 total Greek pages in the book. In each case, Pelling offers not only clear help with the Greek but comments on the speakers and a range of geographic, military and political issues, adducing relevant passages from Homer to Plutarch along the way.
Besides the commentary, works cited, four maps and two illustrations, there is a complementary introduction on Thucydides’ biography in relation to books 6–7, the effect of 6–7 on its audience, how book 6 is anticipated or referenced in other books, how to approach the speeches, Syracuse as an opponent for Athens and the text (also with apparatus and list of deviations from Alberti (Thucydides Historiae VI–VIII (Rome 2000)). The volume’s detail and balance, and a sample of its many interests, can be appreciated by perusing its three excellent indices, of equal length: General, mostly names (for example, ‘Nicias, his illness’, 8 entries; ‘style of speaking’ 12 entries); Language, style and narrative technique (‘Rhetorical tropes and cliches’, like ‘you have beaten this enemy before … you know this already’, ‘Tense, imperfect with 7 different meanings’); and Greek words (ἀγών (‘contest’) 15, ἀνάγκη (‘necessity’) 8, ἐκπλήσσω (‘shock’) 5).
