history

Aitia (Cause vs Pretext in History)

αἰτία

Telling a war's deep underlying cause apart from the surface grievances paraded as its excuse.

Aitia means 'cause' or 'responsibility,' and Greek historians turned the act of separating real causes from mere pretexts into a core analytical move. The most famous example is Thucydides (5th c. BCE) on the Peloponnesian War: beneath the complaints both sides aired in public, he named the 'truest cause' (alethestate prophasis) as the growth of Athenian power and the fear it stirred in Sparta. Probing for hidden causes beneath stated reasons became a hallmark of serious historical, and later philosophical, explanation.

Where this idea shows up

19 Greek sources

Where to read it

Fragments & Testimonia410 BCE
Thucydides· Athens
De aere, aquis, locis370 BCE
Hippocrates· Kos
De flatibus370 BCE
Hippocrates· Kos
De affectionibus370 BCE
Hippocrates· Kos
De arte370 BCE
Hippocrates· Kos
De prisca medicina [attributed]370 BCE
Hippocrates· Kos
De diaeta acutorum (spurium)370 BCE
Pseudo-Hippocrates
Res Publica Atheniensium325 BCE
Aristotle· Chalcis
De sensu et sensibilibus322 BCE
Aristotle· Chalcis
Meteorologica322 BCE
Aristotle· Chalcis
De respiratione322 BCE
Aristotle· Chalcis
De plantis322 BCE
Pseudo-Aristotle· Chalcis
On the Causes of Plants287 BCE
Theophrastus· Athens
De Ventis287 BCE
Theophrastus· Athens
De Fato43 BCE
Cicero· Formiae
Historiae35 BCE
Sallust· Rome
In Hippocratis De natura hominis175 CE
Galen· Rome
In Hippocratis De victu acutorum175 CE
Galen· Rome
Adversus Mathematicos190 CE
Sextus Empiricus· Alexandria