The 'Truest Cause' in a Student Essay
A student essay begins: 'Thucydides proves that the Peloponnesian War was caused by Spartan fear of Athenian growth. His statement of the truest cause in Book 1 is eyewitness evidence, so it is more reliable than the Corinthians' complaints.' The essay then treats the Corinthian speech as a verbatim record of what was said at Sparta. The teacher knows that Thucydides was an Athenian general, wrote after the war, and explicitly says he composed speeches as he thought the speakers would have spoken. The question asks for source criticism, not narrative. The student has strong factual recall but weak methodology, and the essay is due for moderation. The teacher must give feedback that improves the argument without simply supplying the correct interpretation.
1. Analyse Thucydides' distinction between 'truest cause' and the Corinthians' complaints, and explain why the student's use of the passage is methodologically weak.
Read the worked answer
Thucydides distinguishes the aitiai, the immediate complaints and disputes that were openly stated, from the prophasis, the underlying cause he judges truest: Spartan fear of Athenian growth. The distinction is an analytical claim by the historian, not a neutral transcript of Spartan opinion. Calling it 'eyewitness evidence' confuses two things: Thucydides' personal observation and his retrospective interpretation. He was an Athenian general, wrote after the war, and shaped his narrative to explain why the conflict was inevitable. The Corinthians' speech is also not a verbatim record; Thucydides says he composed speeches as the speakers would have spoken. To use either passage as 'proof' is to ignore genre and authorial design. A stronger essay would ask how Thucydides constructs the causal argument, what he omits, and how the Corinthian rhetoric functions in the narrative.
2. How should the Corinthian speech be used as historical evidence?
Read the worked answer
It should be used as evidence for Thucydides' representation of Corinthian rhetoric and for the kinds of arguments that could be made in the Spartan assembly, not as a tape recording. The speech shows how Corinthian speakers framed Athenian growth as a threat and Spartan inaction as dishonour; it also reveals Thucydides' interest in the psychology of alliance politics. Students can compare its claims with the narrative of events-Corcyra, Potidaea, Megara-and with the Spartan speeches that follow. That comparison shows how immediate disputes were translated into a broader fear. The speech cannot prove what individual Corinthians said, but it can illuminate the public language of the period as Thucydides reconstructs it. The essay should say this explicitly rather than quoting the speech as transparent fact.
3. Propose a revised thesis sentence that is defensible and identify two pieces of evidence that would support it.
Read the worked answer
Revised thesis: 'Thucydides presents Spartan fear as the war's underlying cause, but his own narrative shows that Corinthian pressure and Athenian alliance-building turned that fear into action; the truest cause is an interpretive judgement, not a consensus of the actors.' Support: first, the Corinthian speech at Sparta, which frames Athenian aggression and Spartan honour, and the Spartan response that follows; second, Thucydides' account of Athenian moves at Corcyra and Potidaea and the Megarian decree, which shows the immediate disputes he separates from the prophasis. A third support could be the Archaeology, where he argues for the growth of Athenian power. The essay should note that these are all Thucydidean constructions, so the thesis is about his explanation, not about access to a mind-set.