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A Possession for All Time

κτῆμα ἐς αἰεί

History written not to win momentary applause but to stand as a 'possession for all time.'

In his preface, Thucydides (late 5th c. BCE) declared his history a ktema es aiei — a 'possession for all time' — rather than a showpiece (agonisma) for a single hearing. Because human nature recurs, he argued, a clear-eyed record of events would stay useful to anyone trying to understand the future through the past. The phrase became the classic statement that history has enduring, instructive value.

Where this idea shows up

6 Greek sources

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