"Nevertheless, the difference between the mind of Herodotus and that of Thucydides is almost the difference between adolescence and maturity."- Will Durant, The Story of Civilization Book II The Life of Greece
As scientists, maybe.
As scientists studying the science of history, moving between Herodotus to Thucydides is moving from adolescence to maturity.
As Artists, on the other hand....
A history writer is not just a scientist studying history. A history writer is also a storyteller.
And it is the storyteller that is the artist, and the storyteller that is the sage.
And as storytellers, it is Herodotus that is the mature master and Thucydides that is the adolescent amateur.
Herodotus was another Homer. Right alongside Sophocles.
Thucydides, on the other hand...
Well, the choice of subject matter is just so limiting.
I mean, he chose to tell the Peloponnesian War- and he didn't live to see the end of the war!
That limits his story to an almost infantile emotional range- a complete giving in to despair! There is absolutely no scope for positive emotion!
As storytellers, it is Herodotus who is the mature master- a legend alongside Homer- and Thucydides who, despite some artistic strengths, is the adolescent, with the choice of subject matter leaving no scope for positive emotion!
As storytellers, as artists, as sages, moving from Herodotus to Thucydides is moving from a mature master back to adolescence!
And the West has copied Thucydides, not Herodotus, as an artist in its history-writing ever since, simply because Thucydides is the better scientist!
And Thucydides was the better scientist simply because he got to learn from Herodotus's example. Herodotus was the first to ever attempt history as a science!
I copy Herodotus.
(But I really copy Tolkien and Steven Spielberg and apply it to history! (The Steven Spielberg of E.T., not the Steven Spielberg of Schindler's List!))
God loves you!
David S. Annderson