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Thucydides on words changing meaning

427 BCE, written later, Corcyra. His own words.

Where and when

427 BCE, written laterCorcyra

2,452 years ago

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Thucydides

, CorcyraHis own words

In plain words, ours

Words flipped their meaning. Recklessness was called loyal courage, caution was called cowardice, and seeing both sides meant you were useless.

Words had to change their ordinary meaning and to take that which was now given them. Reckless audacity came to be considered the courage of a loyal ally; prudent hesitation, specious cowardice; moderation was held to be a cloak for unmanliness; ability to see all sides of a question inaptness to act on any.

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 3.82.4Translated by Richard Crawley (1874)Read the full passage (Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 3.82.4, opens scaife.perseus.org)

What was going on, our summary

Thucydides is describing the revolution inside the city of Corcyra in 427 BCE, and how such revolutions spread from city to city. He says that war, by taking away the easy supply of daily needs, drags most people's characters down to the level of their circumstances.

Checked claim by claim against: the passage around the quote.

Related moments

In time order, with this one in its place. Each says why it is here.

  1. 430 BCE3 years earlier Plague breaks out in Athens Same years
  2. 431/430 BCE3 years earlier Athens holds a public funeral for its first war dead Same years
  3. 430 BCE, written later3 years earlier Thucydides on the plague in Athens More from Thucydides
  4. 429 BCE2 years earlier Pericles dies Same years
  5. 427 BCESame year Athens votes to kill Mytilene's men, then relents Same years
  6. 427 BCE, written laterThis momentThucydides on words changing meaning
  7. 427 BCE, written laterSame year Thucydides on the moderates caught between sides Same passageMore from Thucydides
  8. 427 BCE, written laterSame year Thucydides on revolution in the cities Same passageMore from Thucydides
  9. 425 BCE2 years later Spartans surrender on Sphacteria Same years
  10. 423 BCE4 years later Strepsiades on the better and worse cause Also about speech and persuasion
  11. c. 386 BCEabout 41 years later Socrates on Aspasia's funeral speech Also about speech and persuasion

Just before and after

The text around the quote, word for word from the same translation.

Show the passageHide the passage

The sufferings which revolution entailed upon the cities were many and terrible, such as have occurred and always will occur, as long as the nature of mankind remains the same; though in a severer or milder form, and varying in their symptoms, according to the variety of the particular cases. In peace and prosperity states and individuals have better sentiments, because they do not find themselves suddenly confronted with imperious necessities; but war takes away the easy supply of daily wants, and so proves a rough master, that brings most men's characters to a level with their fortunes. Revolution thus ran its course from city to city, and the places which it arrived at last, from having heard what had been done before carried to a still greater excess the refinement of their inventions, as manifested in the cunning of their enterprises and the atrocity of their reprisals.

The quote: Words had to change their ordinary meaning and to take that which was now given them. Reckless audacity came to be considered the courage of a loyal ally; prudent hesitation, specious cowardice; moderation was held to be a cloak for unmanliness; ability to see all sides of a question inaptness to act on any.

Frantic violence, became the attribute of manliness; cautious plotting, a justifiable means of self-defence. The advocate of extreme measures was always trustworthy; his opponent a man to be suspected. To succeed in a plot was to have a shrewd head, to divine a plot a still shrewder; but to try to provide against having to do either was to break up your party and to be afraid of your adversaries.

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War 3.82.2–5Translated by Richard Crawley (1874)Read the full passage (opens scaife.perseus.org)

When, and whose words

Date
427 BCE, written later. The civil strife at Corcyra he describes happened in 427 BCE; he wrote it up during or after the war.
Whose words
His own words. Who was Thucydides?
How this post was checked
  • The plain-words line was read against the quote alone by a second, independent pass, which found it adds no claim the quote does not make (2026-10-03).
  • Each claim in the summary was checked by an independent pass against only the material it cites.
  • The quote itself is checked by the build: word for word, once, at the cited section of the stored translation.

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