Thucydide et la transgression dans la guerre. Queques remarques sur Platée et Mytilène

Abstract

How can we recognise transgression in war? I propose to discuss certain aspects of this problem, notably through the analysis of two key episodes in the Peloponnesian War, which took place almost simultaneously during the summer of 427 BC. In both cases, the account of events is provided by Thucydides, the Athenian historian who, in the preface to his work, makes violence and transgression in war a priority criterion for historiographical evaluation (Thuc. 1.23). The analysis of the two episodes is linked, on the one hand, to Euripides' drama The Heracleidae, which allows us to reflect on the existence of the laws of war and their transgression; and, on the other hand, to the way in which modern research has approached this question, including through the role of emotions.