Product Description

Written 400 years before the birth of Christ, this detailed contemporary account of the long life-and-death struggle between Athens and Sparta stands an excellent chance of fulfilling its author's ambitious claim. Thucydides himself was an Athenian and achieved the rank of general in the earlier stages of the war. He applied thereafter a passion for accuracy and a contempt for myth and romance in compiling this factual record of a disastrous conflict.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2656 in Books
• Published on: 1974-02-28
• Original language: Latin
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 656 pages

Synopsis
Written 400 years before the birth of Christ, this detailed contemporary account of the long life-and-death struggle between Athens and Sparta stands an excellent chance of fulfilling its author's ambitious claim. Thucydides himself was an Athenian and achieved the rank of general in the earlier stages of the war. He applied thereafter a passion for accuracy and a contempt for myth and romance in compiling this factual record of a disastrous conflict.

Customer Reviews

An alternative view from Herodotus of 'history'
Thucydides follows self-consciously on from Herodotus as a 'historian' but takes a very different tack. Partly this is due to their place in history: Herodotus was the product of a triumphant Athens leading the mediterannean world after shockingly defeating the huge Persian invasion of Greece, while Thucydides lives through the decline of Athens from her high point under Pericles through to her final defeat under Sparta. A critic of Athenian democracy and the rise of the demagogues, Thucydides is also a participant in the 37 years long war, as strategos (General) who was defeated at Amphipolis and exiled from Athens. What is amazing is his ability to stay detached and analytical, despite his personal involvement in events.
This is a heart-breaking story of the decline of a great city-state through her own folly, and a good antidote to all the people who still claim classical Athens as the high point of civilisation - yes, there was a lot that was great, but Athens was also guilty of horrendous massacres, putting whole islands of fellow Greeks to death or to be sold into slavery.
A wonderful 'must read' for anyone interested in ancient history, politics, democracy, war, and human nature - and it also includes a portrait of the maverick, brilliant and ruthless Alcibiades and shows him to be a product of his times.
Unmissable.

Cannot recommend this book too highly
Who should read this book ?

* Anyone who wants to understand how free societies can descend into tyranny:

* Anyone who does not realise that merely holding free elections is not enough to preserve a society worth living in, especially if you don't combine democracy with the rule of law:

* Anyone who needs to understand how two or more nations can stumble into a war devastating to both:

* Anyone who imagines that genocide and ethnic cleansing were limited to our own era:

* Anyone interested in reading one of the first works of true history ever written.

In other words this history of a terrible war nearly two and half thousand years ago is as relevant in the first decade of the third millenium as it was when it was written, four centuries before the birth of Jesus Christ.

If I had to nominate one historical work for my son and daughter to read, I would think carefully between this volume, Suetonius's "The 12 Caesars", and Herodotus's "Histories", but Thucydides "History of the Peloponnesian war" would edge it.

The Wordsworth Classics version includes an introduction by Lorna Hardwick which I found most helpful in understanding the importance of Thucydides and the context in which his writing needs to be understood.

You cannot take every word in this book for granted, but Herodotus and Thucydides came closer to an objective search for truth than any writer whose works survive and was writing before them or for centuries afterwards.

The story of the tragic wars, initially between Athens and Sparta, which decimated Greek civilisation between 431BC and 404 BC is absolutely gripping, and Thucydides brings the story to life for me.

This translation by Richard Crawley was written more than 130 years ago, and slightly revised by R.C. Feetham in 1903. Despite being more than a century old, I found the translation to be accessible and easy to understand. I understand from those who know more about history than I do that Crawley's translation is now preferred by current experts to the rival Victorian translation by Benjamin Jowett which provides more of a general sense of Thucydides' writing but is less good at conveying the detail.

The most irritating thing about Thucydides book is that it stops suddently in the middle of a sentence in 411 BC, shortly after the overthrow of democracy in Athens and the Athenian naval victory at the Dardanelles. E.g. well before the actual resolution of the conflict between Athens and Sparta, let alone the subsequent struggle between both cities and Thebes.

If, like me, this leaves you wanting to learn more about what happened next, your best bet is to read Xenophon's "A history of my times" which was deliberately written to follow on from Thucydides, to such an extent that it actually starts with the words "And after this."

The reputation of Xenophon among historians as a reliable source has fallen dramatically over the past few decades, and he is undoubtedly not in the same class as Thucydides as a historian, but he certainly is in the same class as a storyteller and he does complete the story of the war.

The father of modern history?
Far too often, Herodotus takes this title, and it really should be applied to Thucydides rather than him. Do not get me wrong, Herodotus is a fascinating read, and as such is highly recommended, but this, in my eyes, is the first, true, history.

As the title suggests, this is a history of the Peloponnesian War, (of which there were actually three at the minimum), and sadly, his narrative breaks off half way through the final war, after covering a period from roughly 480 BC at the end of the Persian Wars, right up to around about 411BC. The period from 480 to 432, covering the successes of the Greeks in freeing Ionia from Persia, the foundation of the Delian League and the first Peloponnesian war, is sadly very poor, and it can be very hard to make out what is going on, often due to his pro Athenian bias. However, from 432 with the outbreak of the first Archidamian war, he is first class.

Having just studied this text as part of an Ancient History A level, i can recommend it whole heartedly. Though not as easy to read as other writers of the Classical period, he is certainly an author who should be read just because. Combined with Herodotus' "Histories" and Xenophon's "A history of my times", you can cover the whole period and gain a fascinating insight into the views and lives of those in Ancient Greece