What's at Stake in Reading Thucydides?

Thucydides' funeral oration rit is a rendering of pericless, the leader of fifth century athens. The speech condenses for them what they want athens to be and you can't ignore it,. Both zimmern and kagan had to work really hard to convince themselves and other people that thucydide didn't believe what he was saying - but i meant to write them as though i were there.