Thucydides Role Of Justice

According to Thucydides’ history of the Peloponnesian War, justice, and the lack of it, was the main way of validating actions and making definitive decisions. The clearest role of justice concerned decision making, especially in circumstances of war. When poleis would make allies, they would consider what the justest and fairest path to take would be, despite disadvantages. The Plataeans allied with Athens rather than Sparta because it was “as justice required” and even held their decision with pride when threatened. This example of justice in action while making political decisions is a focus of Thucydides’ compilation of Platea’s speech during the Plataean Debate. His attention to their friendship with the Athenians implies that he considers their decision and the importance of how justice was involved to be meaningful. The Spartan conclusion of war during the Debate at Sparta, when the Spartans vowed to “punish Athens without delay” as a consequence of their “injustice”, is also indicated to be important. The injustice of Athens rationalized the need for war in the eyes of …show more content…
Many times people use justice as a cause to set things right. The only issue is that the concept of ‘right’ varies based on morals, or culture, or even the government and the laws in place. Justifying actions is more complicated than Thucydides displayed. There are many opinions on what is just and unjust so when one person or one group of people sets out to do something just, it seems more like self-righteousness than justice. Still, in the majority of political decisions, justice is vital to consider and sometimes agreements must be made, though not solely because it is the just answer, with justice in mind. All of the situations written about by Thucydides were political in nature because politics, not individuals, lead to the Peloponnesian