The History of the Peloponnesian War: Revised Edition (Penguin Classics)

The History of the Peloponnesian War: Revised Edition (Penguin Classics)
by Thucydides

The History of the Peloponnesian War: Revised Edition (Penguin Classics)
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Book Summary Information

Author: Thucydides
Editor: M. I. Finley
Translator: Rex Warner
Edition: Paperback
Published: 1954-09-30
ISBN: 0140440399
Number of pages: 656
Publisher: Penguin Classics

Book Reviews of The History of the Peloponnesian War: Revised Edition (Penguin Classics)

Book Review: More required reading
Summary: 5 Stars

If Herodotus is the Father of History, Thucydides is the first truly great historian. Building upon the foundation laid by his predecessor, Thucydides refines and sharpens the art of history into what it should have been all along. He is one of a few ancient historians whose reputation has almost never suffered among subsequent generations of historians.

Thucydides begins his history with the causes of The Peloponnesian War, a 27-year struggle between imperialist, democratic Athens, oligarchic Sparta, and the scores of constantly shifting allies that fought along with them. Though left incomplete at the time of his death, Thucydides's history spans the years 433-411 BC, encompassing the beginning of the war and its escalation through battle and political machination, Athens's ill-fated Sicilian expedition, and the interference of the Persians in Asia Minor.

This translation by Rex Warner is excellent--highly readable and lucid. The introduction and appendices offer lots of helpful information and can be read either before or after the History itself, depending on the reader's prior knowledge or preference. If I have any complaint about this edition, it is that the maps are too small and too few, leaving some important locations unmarked.

Full of real-life drama and moving tales of wartime desperation, Thucydides is just as relevant today as he was when he first perfected the art of history. Reading Thucydides is well worth your time.

Highly recommended.

Summary of The History of the Peloponnesian War: Revised Edition (Penguin Classics)

Written four hundred years before the birth of Christ, this detailed contemporary account of the struggle between Athens and Sparta stands an excellent chance of fulfilling the author's ambitious claim that the work "was done to last forever." The conflicts between the two empires over shipping, trade, and colonial expansion came to a head in 431 b.c. in Northern Greece, and the entire Greek world was plunged into 27 years of war. Thucydides applied a passion for accuracy and a contempt for myth and romance in compiling this exhaustively factual record of the disastrous conflict that eventually ended the Athenian empire.

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