A Possession for All Time

Thucydides, an Athenian, wrote the history of the war between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians, beginning at the moment that it broke out, and believing that it would be a great war and more worthy of relation than any that had preceded it.

雅典人修昔底德记述了伯罗奔尼撒人与雅典人之间的这场战争。他从战争刚一爆发就开始记录，因为他相信这将是一场大战，比以往任何一场战争都更值得叙述。

With reference to the speeches in this history, some were delivered before the war began, others while it was going on; some I heard myself, others I got from various quarters; it was in all cases difficult to carry them word for word in one’s memory, so my habit has been to make the speakers say what was in my opinion demanded of them by the various occasions, of course adhering as closely as possible to the general sense of what they really said. And with reference to the narrative of events, far from permitting myself to derive it from the first source that came to hand, I did not even trust my own impressions, but it rests partly on what I saw myself, partly on what others saw for me, the accuracy of the report being always tried by the most severe and detailed tests possible. My conclusions have cost me some labour from the want of coincidence between accounts of the same occurrences by different eye-witnesses, arising sometimes from imperfect memory, sometimes from undue partiality for one side or the other. The absence of romance in my history will, I fear, detract somewhat from its interest; but if it be judged useful by those inquirers who desire an exact knowledge of the past as an aid to the interpretation of the future, which in the course of human things must resemble if it does not reflect it, I shall be content. In fine, I have written my work, not as an essay which is to win the applause of the moment, but as a possession for all time.

关于这部历史中的演说：有些是战前发表的，有些是战争进行中发表的；有些是我亲耳听到的，有些是我从各方面得来的。无论哪一种，要一字不差地记住都很困难，所以我的做法是：一方面尽可能贴近演说者实际所说的大意，一方面让他们说出在我看来各个场合所要求的话。至于事件的叙述，我决不允许自己从随手得到的第一个来源取材，甚至不相信自己的印象；它一部分依据我亲眼所见，一部分依据别人替我所见，而每一份报告的准确性，都经过了尽可能严格细致的检验。我的结论得来颇费力气，因为不同的目击者对同一件事的叙述并不一致，有时是由于记忆不全，有时是由于对这一方或那一方过分偏袒。我的历史里没有传奇色彩，我担心这会使它少了几分趣味；但是，如果那些想要准确了解过去、借以理解未来的探究者认为它有用——而按照人事的常规，未来即使不重演过去，也必然与过去相似——那我就满足了。总之，我写下这部著作，不是为了博取一时的喝彩，而是要它成为永远的财富。