修昔底德传统与拜占庭帝国的历史书写

The Thucydidean Tradition and the Byzantine Historical Writing

拜占庭帝国是修昔底德著作传承的重要时期。在拜占庭帝国早期,军事政治史学家善于模仿和改写修昔底德笔下的“普拉提亚之围”、“雅典瘟疫叙事”以及一些著名的演说词;而一些教会史学家在写作时也受修昔底德的影响,但出于基督教的价值观而不直接模仿他。因此,是否模仿修昔底德进行历史写作可以反映出当时教、俗两大史学写作群体的价值取向。公元7—13世纪,修昔底德的《伯罗奔尼撒战争史》仍在被传播和学习,但随着拜占庭人教育和文化的改变,对修昔底德文本的模仿现象消失了。在这一时期,修昔底德传统在拜占庭帝国学术体系中的地位有所下降。而到了拜占庭帝国末期,面对西欧人的扩张,尤其是公元1204年第四次十字军东征之后,拜占庭帝国学者有意识地复兴希腊古典文化。在这一背景下,少数拜占庭帝国史学家恢复了对修昔底德文本的模仿和改写,对《伯罗奔尼撒战争史》的传承具有积极意义;但是,他们对修昔底德等古典作家的研习和模仿往往拘泥于文字,未能从中真正领会历史经验,处理好国家的外交和内政。

The Byzantine Empire was an important era for the transmission of Thucydides' works.In the early period of the Byzantine Empire,military-political historians were keen to imitate and rewrite‘the Siege of Plataea’,‘the Great Plague of Athens’,and some famous speeches of Thucydides.Some ecclesiastical historians were also influenced by Thucydides when they composed their works.But they did not imitate him directly because of their Christian values.Accordingly,the value orientation determined whether these two major groups of historians imitated Thucydides in the historical writing or not at that time.From the 7^th century to the 13^th century,History of the Peloponnesian War was still spread and studied.However,with the change of the Byzantine education and culture,the imitation of Thucydides disappeared.During that period,Thucydides position in the Byzantine academic system declined.At the final stage of Byzantium,the Byzantine scholars consciously revived the classical Greek culture,facing the expansion of the Western Europeans,especially after the Fourth Crusade in 1204.Under such circumstance,several Byzantine historians recovered the imitation and the rewriting of Thucydides works.This revival had positive significance for the transmission of History of the Peloponnesian War.Nevertheless,their study and imitation of Thucydides as well as other classical writers were often constrained by words.Therefore,they failed to really understand the historical experience and deal with foreign and domestic affairs.