Exhibit 1218 ยท Classical history (translation)
Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, Book III, the Corcyraean revolution and its spread (Crawley translation)
Words had to change their ordinary meaning and to take that which was now given them.
Thucydides describes the revolution at Corcyra and its spread through the Greek cities. He states that factional struggle changed the meaning of words, that the cause of the evils was the lust for power arising from greed and ambition, and that such sufferings recur as long as human nature remains the same.
- Source
- Thucydides; translated by Richard Crawley
- Date
- c. 400 BCE (Crawley translation, 1874)
- Quoted from
- Book III, passage on the Corcyraean revolution (standard numbering 3.82; the Crawley text prints no section numbers), Gutenberg ebook 7142 plain text
- Grade
- Primary record
- Document
- https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/7142
- Accessed
- 2026-11-10
- Cited by
- Findings citing this exhibit
- Note
- Standard section numbers 3.82-3.84 come from the usual citation convention, not from the Gutenberg text read. Same passage also reads: 'The cause of all these evils was the lust for power arising from greed and ambition' and 'as long as the nature of mankind remains the same'.