Lettere dal fronte. Diplomazia e trame personali nei primi anni della guerra ionica (413-410 a.C.)

Letters from the Battlefront. Diplomacy and Individual Plots in the First Years of the Ionian War (413-410) Abstract The essay takes into examination the diplomatic exchanges which occurred during the last years of the Peloponnesian War (the so-called Ionian War, 413-404 BC) and focuses mainly on Thucydides’ description of the events of the years 413-410. The aim of the paper is to highlight the ways in which the traditional Greek diplomatic practice was altered by the new conditions of the war, and by the Athenian stasis of 411, thus trying to illuminate some peculiar features of the Thucydidean narrative (absence of direct speeches, inclusion of documents and letters) in the eighth book of his history.