with the two nations at the height of their powers, it was likely to be "the greatest disturbance in the history of the Hellenes" (Greece), affecting, perhaps, "the whole of mankind" (13). Though it was difficult to "acquire a really precise knowledge" of ancient and recent history, based on the evidence he could assemble Thucydides did not believe that there had been an earlier war that could equal the scope of this one (13). Thucydides summarized the history of the Hellenes and, referring to the authority of Homer, "if we can believe [his] evidence," estimated the size of the conflict between the Greeks and Troy recounted in the Iliad. He concluded that the fifth-century war was the greater conflict and used this as an example of the manner in which he drew conclusions from the available evidence. He outlined his method and asserted that he had either witnessed the events he reported or had carefully sifted the accounts of other eyewitnesses. Thucydides claimed to stick to the facts and to leave out "the romantic element" (24). His purpose in writing was not to entertain but to provide an account that would be "useful [to] those who want to understand clearly the events which happened in the past and which (human nature being what it is) will, at some time or other and in much the same way, be repeated in the future" (24).
Procopius followed Thucydides on every point. He says that, having been an adviser to the general Belisarius, he was "an eyewitness of practically all the events" he describes (5). Procopius argues that his account of the empire's wars will be "most helpful to men of the present time, and to future generations as well, in case time should ever again place men under a similar stress" (3). But he also states that his purpose in writing is to avoid having th
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