Was Alcibiades an informant of Thucydides?

Nývlt, Pavel (2014) Was Alcibiades an informant of Thucydides? Acta Antiqua Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, 54 (4). pp. 381-391. ISSN 0044-5975

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Abstract

The article discusses several passages of Thucydides’ work, asking whether Alcibiades could have been the one who informed Thucydides about the course of the events (esp. V 43–45; VI 89–92; VIII 5–6; VIII 12; VIII 45–56). The only place where Thucydides magnifies Alcibiades’ influence is VIII 12; but there are other passages which could be based on information from Alcibiades, if he did not care about moral implications of his actions. On the other hand, several passages show clearly that Thucydides had no illusions about Alcibiades (esp. VIII 81. 3 and 86. 4). And yet, it is beyond doubt that Thucydides would try to be informed by Alcibiades and no decisive arguments against the possibility that the two met have been raised, so it seems probable that Alcibiades was one of Thucydides’ sources of information.

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