Roman, Agathe <br/><br/>
Ἁμαρτάνειν Ἀδικεῖν: Words for Error, Failure, and Breach in The Peloponnesian War 

 -  2009.<br/>							 
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<br/><br/> The lexical study of hamartanein and adikein shows that Thucydides establishes a clear distinction between error, failure, breach of duty ( hamartanein), and law breaking ( adikein). Using hamartanein to describe a transgression indicates an evaluation of the action which takes into consideration the circumstances, the intention of the actor, and his relation with the person who suffers from the transgression. On the contrary, the use of adikein reveals that the action itself is considered rather than its motives; this takes place in a well-defined context and involves a sanction upheld by an institution. Knowing this, we now can understand that these two terms constitute an issue in the rhetorical discourses present in The Peloponnesian War, one speaker accusing the other of being adikos, while he himself pretends having made a hamartanein. Some speakers even modify the context in order to use one word instead of the other. The discourse becomes deceptive. For instance, the Corinthians speak of Corcyra—their own colony—as if Corinth were hegemon of a league and Corcyra, one of their allies; this modification of the real context enables them to call Corcyra’s transgression a hamartema. Therefore, we can say that Thucydides distinguishes between error and law-breaking, although he gives the causes without judging explicitly, in order to allow his readers to judge by themselves.