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Thucydides presents his narrative in such a way as to identify the gap between what is said and what stands as the real motive for the action he presents; in this way, he seeks to reveal to his readers “the truest cause.” How then does the political speech, which Thucydides takes care in recomposing, reflect historical reality, if the speech is itself a medium of dissimulation? By focusing on the terms “visible” ( phaneros) and “non visible” ( aphanēs), we shall determine to what extent the speech — despite its ability to hide the truth under false pretences — may still inform the reader as to what really motivates the action under consideration. We shall then demonstrate that this speech-event relationship expresses itself in the same way on the compositional level, in the form of Thucydides’ own insertions.