Speech of Hermocrates at Gela
- Speech of Hermocrates at Gela
The Speech of Hermocrates at Gela is a speech recorded by the historian Thucydides in book four of his History of the Peloponnesian War. [Thucydides, "History of the Peloponnesian War", 4.59-4.64. ] The speeches in Thucydides' History are usually considered not to be verbatim accounts of historical speeches, but rather records of the general sense of a given speech. For this reason, most scholars consider the Hermocrates' speech to be important for what it tells us about the general situation in Sicily at that time, rather than as a faithful artifact of an event.
Hermocrates
Hermocrates was a Syracusan general and statesman active in the later part of the fifth century BCE. He would later be influential during Athens' protracted siege of Syracuse during the Sicilian Expedition.
Background
Sicily was riven by a variety of ethnic and inter-city conflicts during the fifth century.
The speech
Hermocrates' speech is notable as an example of embedded international relations theory.
Result of the speech
References
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