Rewriting the history of the tyrannicides: Thucydides versus Herodotus?

Abstract

This paper deals with Thucydides’ famous digression in the sixth book of his history about the fall of tyranny in Athens (Thuc. 6.54-59) and its relation to Herodotus’ account. Thucydides’ digression (and more specifically its polemical tone) has sparked controversy among commentators, who have analyzed extensively the narratives of the two historians both from a historical and from a historiographical perspective. This study aims to contribute to this discussion, by making three suggestions: first, Thucydides engages not only with the small section about the tyrannicides of Herodotus’ history (that is Hdt. 5.55-65), but rather with the whole Herodotean narrative about the liberation of Athens from tyranny which extends up to Sokles’ speech (that is Hdt. 5.55-5.96.2); second, Thucydides’ corrections to Herodotus’ account are minor; third, given that Thucydides’ divergences from Herodotus are not so decisive for the correct version of the events, Thucydides’ polemical tone in his digression becomes even more difficult to explain. In this paper will suggest tentatively that Thucydides’ polemical stance makes better sense if it is interpreted in the context of the historian’s rivalry with Herodotus