Attività intellettuale e risorse materiali in Tucidide, Pericle e Anassagora

Pericles and Thucydides are characterized by a bipartition between intellectual activity (γνώμη) and material resources (χρήματα); the former is used to interpret the latter in order to determine political action and historical evaluation, to predict future events and reconstruct past ones. The distinction between an intellectual level (νοῦς) and a material one (χρήματα) can be found in Anaxagoras for the first time. Thucydides’ and Pericles’ γνώμη correspond to Anaxagoras’ νοῦς, which has γνώμη (DK B12 = LM D27). There is even lexical coincidence for χρήματα, as well as thematic correspondence; χρήματα (material things) in Anaxagoras and χρήματα (financial resources) in Pericles and Thucydides share a common conceptualization of reality, which makes them abstract while remaining real. Anaxagoras certainly influenced Pericles and Thucydides; it is likely that the Anaxagorean bipartition νοῦς – χρήματα influenced the γνώμη – χρήματα bipartition, which is present in Pericles’ and Thucydides’ reflections.