Thucydides addresses his readers with his speeches, not the listeners of the words. He presents the orators expressing ideas that they might not have even thought of, or even if they had conceived them, did not externalize them, seeing events with a clear eye, even if they did not always have that clarity. This is because it is Thucydides who thinks and sees in this way.
The orators of the speeches do not express individual opinions. In the speeches, the plot of historical events is sought, the causes and triggers that provoked them, their motivations, and their consequences. That is why they are delivered at critical turning points in the historical narrative.
We will find a speech wherever there is a need for justification. Often, in a single speech, Thucydides includes the main points of many speeches that were delivered in various places and by different individuals, in order to concisely present the factors that led to the course of the events he narrates at a certain point in his work.
The speeches—which cover more than one fifth of his entire work (over 40) and about a third of which is found in the first 4 books—give us the true stature of the great historian. They condense thoughts, feelings, reflections, and psychological states of individuals and entire societies that only Thucydides could synthesize with his own voice.
