At 11:23 PM +1200 23/8/07, Peter Metcalfe wrote:
>At 10:31 p.m. 23/08/2007, you wrote:
>
>> > Actually 7.29. You might as well quote the sentence just before
>> > it which reads "The Thracians bursting into Mycalessus sacked
>> > the houses and temples and butchered the inhabitants, sparing
>> > neither youth [...]" making it clear that the atrocity was committed
>> > by them rather than "Athenians and their Thracian mercenaries".
>
>>Not correct. Read Victor Davis Hanson's commentaries on Thucydides
>>and it is pretty clear that the Athenians permitted and oversaw the
>>buchery by their Thracian mercenaries.
>
>That's only VDH's interpretation.
Without wishing to get caught in the cross fire, because I am
certainly no classics scholar myself, VDH certainly has many critics
in the field who think he is full of it.
And while I may not be qualified to make judgements on his
classical scholarship, I am in as god a position as anyone to judge
his political comments for a more general audience. And as far as
that goes, he seems to be an ass.
Cheers
David