«I molteplici casi della sorte». Disastri della guerra e della natura in Tucidide

In chapter 1.23 Thucydides concludes the preface and summarizes the key elements of his historiographical vision. The Athenian historian connects the preeminence of his war to both its duration and an impressive list of sufferings (pathemata); then he adds a second list of natural upheavals (earthquakes, eclipses, the plague). This paper aims at investigating the relationship between the two series of human and natural disasters in the broader framework of thucydidean thought on war and human behavior. By combining both lists Thucydides does not intend to identify in the extraordinary subversion of the natural environment an effect of human decisions or an announcement of the war, but he aims at creating a surplus of meaning and provides the reader with an expanded access to his vision of war.