The Thucydides trap – how the Greek historian’s words were lost in translation | Letter

Tim Rood and Phil Coughlin on Xi Jinping’s reference to the Thucydides trap in a meeting with Donald Trump In explaining Xi Jinping’s allusion to the Thucydides trap, Kate Lamb refers to Thucydides’ statement that “it was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable” (What is the Thucydides Trap and why did Xi Jinping mention it in his meeting with Donald Trump?, 15 May). That is the translation used by the Harvard political scientist Graham Allison, who popularised the phrase “Thucydides trap”, and who attributes the translation to Richard Crawley’s 1874 edition. It is often said that Thucydides’ Greek is better translated as “the Athenians growing great and creating fear in the Spartans compelled them towards making war”. That is, Thucydides was speaking of a subjective impression of necessity on the Spartans’ part rather than claiming absolute necessity. Less well-known is the fact that the translation Allison uses was introduced into Crawley’s edition in a revision by his nephew Richard Feetham in 1903, at the very time that the danger of “inevitable war” between Britain and Germany began to be seen as a th