Essay Questions

Briefly explain why the Hellas country is undeveloped according to the narrator in the “The Peloponnesian War” by Thucydides.

The Hellas country is undeveloped for two major reasons. Firstly, the country has no settled population implying that there is no construction of infrastructure and the development of urban areas. People keep on migrating to other places for safety. The Hellenes are leaving their homes due to pressure from the superior numbers. Therefore, the local people have no freedom of communication to engage in commerce or any other viable economic activity that can help them develop their country. Additionally, they are not engaged in any form of agriculture because when the enemy strikes, he takes everything making life harder for the locals. Secondly, invaders have not given them peace to settle down. All these factors explain why the Hellas country is undeveloped according to Thucydides' book.

What is the primary difference between the Hellas and the Athenians in the modern world.

The Hellenes are still practicing their old-fashioned lifestyles. For example, the Aerotolians among others are accustomed to walking with arms. It has become a habit for the Hellenes living in unproductive inhabitants to wear weapons just the way the Barbarians do. Largely, the Hellas area is undeveloped and most inhabitants have no access to luxuries. However, the Athenians have adopted modern living ways such as walking without weapons and acquiring the luxuries of life. They are developed and embracing more civilizations to establish a better country. The narrator writes:

“And even at the present day many of Hellas still follow the old fashion, the Ozolian Locrians for instance, the Aetolians, the Acarnanians, and that region of the continent; and the custom of carrying arms is still kept up among these continentals, from the old piratical habits. The whole of Hellas used once to carry arms, their habitations being unprotected and their communication with each other unsafe; indeed, to wear arms was as much a part of everyday life with them as with the barbarians.”

How does the author employ the literary device ‘personification’ in “The Peloponnesian War’?

The narrator has given the country the ability to converse and think as a human being. He says she has great wealth and resources to enabled her to procure the navy when the need arises. The country is given man responsibilities to employ and deploy the navy. This literary device is critical in helping the reader understand the power manifested in the country. He writes:

“She had consequently great money resources, as is shown by the epithet "wealthy" bestowed by the old poets on the place, and this enabled her, when traffic by sea became more common, to procure her navy and put down piracy; and as she could offer a mart for the bot.”