Aitia (Cause vs Pretext in History)
Telling a war's deep underlying cause apart from the surface grievances paraded as its excuse.
Aitia means 'cause' or 'responsibility,' and Greek historians turned the act of separating real causes from mere pretexts into a core analytical move. The most famous example is Thucydides (5th c. BCE) on the Peloponnesian War: beneath the complaints both sides aired in public, he named the 'truest cause' (alethestate prophasis) as the growth of Athenian power and the fear it stirred in Sparta. Probing for hidden causes beneath stated reasons became a hallmark of serious historical, and later philosophical, explanation.
How it traveled
- On the Causes of PlantsAthens · -287explains
- In Hippocratis De victu acutorumRome · 175explains
- In Hippocratis De natura hominisRome · 175explains
- Adversus MathematicosAlexandria · 190explains
- Antiquitates RomanaeRomeexplains
- Historical LibrarySyracuse (Sicily)explains
- Fragmenta Logica et PhysicaAthensexplains
- Praeparatio Evangelica—explains
- In Hippocratis Epidemiarum IRomeexplains
- Scholia in Iliadem—explains
- Historia RomanaRomeexplains
- Anonymi In Analyticorum Posteriorum Librum Alterum Commentarium—explains
- De BellisConstantinople (Istanbul)explains
- De ThucydideRomeexplains
- De fatoAthensexplains
- OrationesPrusaexplains
- Orationes 48Smyrnaexplains
- Scholia in Euripidem (scholia vetera)—explains
- Declamatio 6Antiochexplains
- Epistula ad Pompeium GeminumRomeexplains
- Scholia in Euripidis Orestem (scholia vetera et scholia recentiora Thomae Magistri, Triclinii, Moschopuli et anonyma)—explains
- De methodo medendiRomeexplains
- HistoriaeRomeexplains
- Epitome Rerum RomanorumRomeexplains
- Ιστορικον Συντιπα του Φιλοσοφου Ωραιοτατον Πανυ—explains
- Encomium of HelenLeontiniexplains
Key passages(20)
De Thucydide · Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Adversus Mathematicos · Sextus Empiricus
De Thucydide · Dionysius of Halicarnassus
Epistula ad Pompeium Geminum · Dionysius of Halicarnassus
In Hippocratis Epidemiarum I · Galen
Adversus Mathematicos · Sextus Empiricus
Ιστορικον Συντιπα του Φιλοσοφου Ωραιοτατον Πανυ · Syntipas
Fragmenta Logica et Physica · Chrysippus
Antiquitates Romanae · Dionysius of Halicarnassus
In Hippocratis De natura hominis · Galen
In Hippocratis Epidemiarum I · Galen
Encomium of Helen · Gorgias of Leontini