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Entry | The Historie of the Warres of Peloponnesus written in Greeke by Thucydides the …

The Historie of the Warres of Peloponnesus written in Greeke by Thucydides the Athenian in Eight Bookes, And Engl[i]shed from the Greeke by Mr Francis Hickes

Typology: Translation | Language: English | Place of publication: Oxford | Year: 1600 ca.

Greek Text: no

Content: Complete Work

Francis Hickes (ca. 1565-1631), translator and classical scholar. Francis was the son of Richard Hickes, the queen's arrasmaker, possibly of Flemish origin. Appointed jointly with his father to the royal tapestry office in 1575, Hickes studied at St Mary Hall, Oxford, matriculating at thirteen and receiving his B.A. in 1583. He spent much of his life in rural Warwickshire and Worcestershire, especially in Barcheston and Shipston, devoting himself to Greek-to-English translations as a personal scholarly pursuit. Although none of his works appeared in print during his lifetime, his translation of Lucian's Dialogues and True History was published posthumously in 1634 by his son, Thomas Hickes. Two further translations – Thucydides' History and Herodian's History – survive in manuscript at Christ Church, Oxford. ODNB

The translation, preserved in an Oxford manuscript (ms. Christ Church 156), was discovered only a few years ago by Chris Pelling and Stuart Gillespie ('The Greek Translations of Francis Hickes (1565/6-1631)', in Translation and Literature, 25 (2016), pp. 315-338). Hickes appears to have completed his translation independently, unaware of Hobbes's version, which was produced around the same time.

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Global Thucydides

The Historie of the Warres of Peloponnesus written in Greeke by Thucydides the Athenian in Eight Bookes, And Engl[i]shed from the Greeke by Mr Francis Hickes

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