The Peloponnesian War

The History of the Peloponnesian War, by Thucydides, tells the story of the war of that name that took place in Ancient Greece. Thucydides recounts his history of the war in eight books The book begins with Sparta deciding that peace has been broken and that they need to go to war. After the vote for war, there also is a plague and they bury some of the lost. Lesbos revolts and war rages among times of peace and civil war. Thucydides recounts the events that take place in Sicily and an eventual "truce" and the consequences of the conflict. He goes over many battles in different cities telling of battles treaties, movements and so on. He tells the events of Amphipolis and the fighting there, and the talks with the people of Melos. Then come the events of Sicily again, and false hope, leading to the loss of Syracuse and chances of victory. With Syracuse lost defeat sets in, and all the way to Athens there is fear. With the Athenian Army decimated and hope lost, only 400 men remain to fight a final battle, and thus the history ends. Thyucidides tells chronologically the events of the war, and in great detail. At over 600 pages, this is a very thorough and complete translation of the book. A recommended read for anyone, and a very informative and accuarate book and a wondrful translation by Steven Lattimore. A must read

No book has kept me up at night or occupied my thoughts in the past decade more than Thucydides. The story told here is stunningly and disturbingly relevant for any American. Sparta vs Athens seems an allegory for the conflict between traditional America, of our first hundred years or so, and modern, progressive America from about 1900 onward. Its no allegory of course, and the realization that history repeats itself gives the work an importance that no book can match.I recall in college taking one of those Intellectual History survey courses required of incoming freshman. We were all assigned to read Perikles funeral oration as an example of how like our society Athens was and of course, how noble that likeness made the two societies. We weren't, of course, assigned the entire book, just the oration out of context. When I finally got around to reading Thucydides years later, I thought back to that course and wanted my tuition money back!Read the original text. Political writers and propagandists of all stripes make reference to Thucydides to give weight to their views. Don't trust their interpretations. Read for yourself and decide. Skip the commentaries and translations and go right to page one of the text.

Not a review of Thucydides, but of this terrible printing by Chicago Press. I owned this book years ago and I just received a replacement copy. The cover looks like it was done off an old xerox machine and it was thin and cheap. Very dissapointed in this edition.

I have extensively studied Thucydides over the past few months, and have read four different translations: Hobbes twice and three other translations once each. No other translation captures the justice and fluidity of Ancient Greek eloquence as naturally as Hobbes. I thank Grene for such an honest gift to scholarship. The Hobbes version is the best translation you will find in english, accept it. If you cannot get past the now esoteric 17th contrary prose, I recommend the Walter Blanco translation. The Blanco translation is superb, but i will warn you of the concrete dust dryness embedded in each and every sentence, it makes you cough and turn your head from the page.

This was a tough read, but worth it. It was required reading for a class I am taking, but I am very glad that I bought it rather than checking it out of the library. It is a great addition to my personal library.

This is a classic, so it's hard to critique. Hobbes' translation is good; the book is just a challenging read. The best part for me was actually the essay Hobbes wrote about Thucydides, taking on those who were critical of Thucydides' approach to writing history.

Thucydides, may be considered the World's 1st modern historian. He writes about who and what made The Peloponnesian War a true tragic end to the power of Athens and explains the roles of the main characters.

The definitive edition in English of this epic narrative. The Hobbes translation of Thucydides is by far supreme, just as the Dryden translation of Plutarch is.

I first got this because out of the Greek Historians, Thucydides seemed to be generally held as the most accurate, and secondly, in a sense he represented his age reflecting some of the viewpoints of his age: the belief in fate for example, which was a topic I was interested in, being dealt with by writers from Homer to Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet. There were other reasons too, such as providing a different background to the world of Socrates (469 – 399 bc.) who fought in the war, and Plato (427 – 327 bc), from a philosophical one.In essence the war lasted for 27years, from 431-404 bc, ended with the defeat of Athens by Sparta and her allies. The History was clearly written to be read, but considering the period in which it was written, it must also be seen as a labour of love, and while Thucydides lets us know whose side he is on, there is a discipline apparent of the desire to be as impartial in the recording as possible. Every now and again, where relevant, we have a speech by one of the leaders – the oration speech by Pericles for example, or an envoy from one camp visiting another. The detail is staggering, and I wonder how long a retelling of the European Thirty Years War would be, if this were its model. This is from Book 2 describing the plague in Athens: ‘….Inability to rest and sleeplessness were the affliction throughout. And the whole time the disease was at its height, the body did not waste away but held out surprisingly against its suffering so that most either died from some internal burning on the ninth or seventh day, while they still had strength, or if they survived and the disease descended into the belly, and severe ulceration occurred and completely liquid diarrhea set in, most perished later from the weakness this caused.’ Another level of detail was the military detail, and a closer examination of a map of the area reveals how important having a ‘navy’ was – certainly for Athens in the early stages of the war. We hear a lot about the numbers of ships and how sea battles took place, but little about how the hoplites in their large numbers were used. What strangely was not mentioned was the phalanxes – a group of men in a block of 16 by 16 soldiers with spears 16-18 feet long who were virtually invincible on the open field when advancing, they helped Alexander the Great beat the Persians under Darius, but as the Romans demonstrated at Cynonscephalae in 197 bc. their weakness was the unprotected rear. The Roman victory ensured control of the Mediterranean and the end of a long period of Greek-Macedonian influence.For the modern reader Thucydides ‘war’ is not a quick read; and the full history was never completed: some 450 pages of text of the Eight Books, in a translation so clear that when it was first published it was described as the new English standard version. The excellent text, with the very helpful notes (and maps at the back) is full of discoveries. There are of course very relevant resonances with some of the issues behind the Brexit debate, not the least the problems with Imperialism in all of its many guises. History it seems, is something we are not very good at learning from, partly because there is this strange idea that where we come from has only limited relevance. Excellent.

No dust jacket