Next, speeches play a major factor in both bits of writing. In Herodotus he uses speeches to sometimes clarify a point, such as the conversation between Demaratus and Xerxes, these are mainly small speeches, and are mainly used to back up one point. Whereas, Thucydides includes speeches which take up 3 or 4 pages of his book, an example of this is Pericles funeral speech, which goes on for quite a while. Although this is important in the context of the part of his book, it offers very little relevance and information for us. This could show that Thucydides likes expressing people’s opinions, although he doesn’t have to agree with them. This brings me on to my next point; it is clear in both pieces of writing that Herodotus and Thucydides don’t usually include rumours in their writing although they have different approaches. Thucydides includes other peoples opinions about the subject but doesn’t usually doesn’t agree with them and usually just stick with the absolute facts. Such as the dispute of Epidamnus he sticks purely to the facts he has learnt. Herodotus seems to stay away from the rumours and opinions but believes in things such as omens and oracles to help what he is saying. An example of Herodotus using omens is when Xerxes is on his way towards Greece; Herodotus says that a deer giving birth is a bad omen and therefore we could say that Herodotus cares less about the proper facts but reckons the facts lie in oracles advice and also omens.
When talking about religion, both historians are also very different. Thucydides has the firm believe that religion is basically not very helpful and therefore he doesn’t include a lot about it in his writing, although on several accounts he does respect others opinions on religion because he does make several references to people travelling to the oracle in Delphi. In contrast to this Herodotus uses religion in much of his writing; this may be because he is a strong believer in religion, this ties in well with my previous point about oracles and his firm belief in omens. Another point I would like to raise is how they present their writing in paragraphs. Thucydides writes his paragraphs usually so they contain one main point which he is trying to get across. An example of this is when describing the build up to the Peloponnesian war he usually includes one main point. On the other hand, in Herodotus’ writing he includes as much detail as he possibly can so he can really show you the point he is trying to make. A good example of this is when he is describing what Xerxes has in his force; he lists loads and loads of different kinds of people.
Next, in both bits of writing a usual feature of their writing is how biased or how unbiased they are towards people and events. Thucydides is definitely unbiased in much of his writing, even though he is Athenian. On the other hand there is a few examples when he is biased and is one sided, such as when he is summing up Themistocles character he is very biased saying how he is in awe of his genius. Herodotus on the other hand, seems to be truly unbiased in all of his writing although their a few exceptions such as his view on Xerxes.
In conclusion, I think it is clear from the points above how both Herodotus and Thucydides have similar writing styles but also how they differ in several ways.
