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Echoes of Thucydides’ Sicilian Expedition in Three Greek Novels

The Athenians’ expedition to Sicily and its defeat by the Syracusans during the Peloponnesian War is a frequent and well-known point of reference for the narrator and characters of Chariton’s Callirhoe. 1 Already in the novel’s second sentence Callirhoe’s father hermocrates is identified as “the one who defeated the Athenians” 2 (1.1.1), and after a series of allusions both subtle and overt throughout the novel to the wartime events in Sicily, the Syracusans’ victory is touched upon one last time in the final episode. When Chaereas and Callirhoe have returned to Syracuse, the people “felt greater gratitude for this day than they had for the day of their victory celebration” (8.7.2). 3 other portions of the historian’s work are imitated and referenced by Chariton, 4 but the Sicilian war is a primary locus of his allusions. Still, three verbal echoes of the Sicilian portion of Thucydides’ account have, i believe, been missed. All occur in Chariton’s seventh book, which mostly comprises a narrative of the war between Persia and egypt in which Chaereas plays a leading role. They do not necessarily inform the immediately surrounding context in drastic ways or force radical reinterpretation on the part of a reader who recognizes them, but they are unmistakable nonetheless and do have an effect. in combination with the web of Thucydidean imitation and allusion throughout the novel, they contribute to the literary texture and a sense of literary filiation, all the while adding depth to their individual moments. Certainly the reflections of Thucydides in Callirhoe are more sophisticated than those in Xenophon of ephesus or Achilles Tatius that i present below, and they show a more sustained engagement with the historian. 5