The Good Life: Plato And Thucydides

Plato and Thucydides appear to have different views on what is to be considered the good life. Perhaps neither philosophers are right or possibly neither of them were wrong. Everyone’s perception or interruption of what “the good life” is differs. The old saying beauty is in the eyes of the beholder is a good example of this. It has been stated within The Peloponnessian War by Thucydides, “that justice depends on the equality of power.” From the selection it can be determined that the idea of a good life depends on honor. This selection speaks about a war going on between the Athenians and Melians. It seemed to be a battle of David vs. Goliath because Melos was a small island that had been invaded by Athens. The Melians fought for what they believed in and refused to surrender to the Athenians as they stated for standing up against evil, and the gods would give them justice as well as fortune just as much as the Athenians had achieved. …show more content…
However, as it seems by the Athenians they are being righteous by taking out their enemies because they have the power to do so. In the end, the Melians stood up against the opposition but fell to the strength of Athens and many were killed. However, based on the theory of how Thucydides portrayed right vs wrong doing, the Melians lived a good life by fighting for what they thought was justice and even though their empire had fallen they never gave and would be rewarded in the