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The speeches in Thucydides are usually studied in a historical point of view. Without trying to prove whether the Melian dialogue truly took place in history or not, the present paper wishes to examine why Thucydides chose the dialogue form –an exception in the Peloponnesian war – instead of the speech, more usual in his work. Considering the conditions in which this exchange took place according to the historian, and examining the uses of the dialogue and the speech, it will be possible to conclude that the dialogue form can express the imbalance of the Melian exchange. Using this form, Thucydides shows the Athenian power without the speech’s rhetoric.