Excerpt from Thucydides, Book I Proem would have been better if it had consisted of the head and the tail without the body. This is perhaps about the most disturbing thing that he says; and, after all, if Thucydides had been making a speech, even that criticism would have been quite true. Dionysius did not understand how history should be written; but he did most thoroughly understand the qualities of the austere style in composition and he appreciated the best qualities of Thucydides on the artistic side - his consummate power in narrative, his fertile inven tion in the speeches, his dignity and unsurpassed pathos. Modern editors, even Poppo, owe a debt to him that they do not always acknowledge. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.