Escape from Plataea: Political and Intellectual Liberation in Thucydides's History

Thucydides's account of both the Spartan siege of Plataea and the efforts by its defenders to save themselves and escape their doomed city relates some of the most daring acts of his History, a work with no shortage of daring deeds. But reading this bracing account in light of the allegory of the cave and the divided line made famous in Plato's Republic, a reading that highlights the literary dimensions of the History, suggests why Thucydides thought he could reveal "the clear truth" about human things in a work exclusively dedicated to the practical, political events of a particular war.