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> Sure: they could have made it all up Nobody seriously doubts that https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peloponnesian_War https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peloponne
by smitty1e 5y ago
> Sure: they could have made it all up
Nobody seriously doubts that https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peloponnesian_War https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peloponnesian_War happened, for all there is mostly just the account of Thucydides to document it.
But do we really think all of those speeches were delivered that exquisitely?
- ggm 5y agoNo. Hansard allows editing of speeches to be what you wished you'd said. Mind you, "shimi" Lovat persuaded his personal bagpiper to play on the beaches of D Day in 1944 as the regiment landed.(1) On the 6th. Against orders. If Thucydides was Stephen Ambrose and had written it, would we credit it or say "gross embellishment" 1. https://web.archive.org/web/20170606191755/http://www.economist.com/node/16885894?story_id=16885894 https://web.archive.org/web/20170606191755/http://www.econom...
- smitty1e 5y agoIs see your point, but there were enough witnesses at D-Day of recent vintage to have endorsed the fact. My original, still standing, point is that the anecdote about Locke sure is being treated as authoritative when further corroboration may be in order.
- ggm 5y agoTo me, it has exactly the same weight as Lockes denials.