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The History of the Peloponnesian War: Revised Edition » (Reprint)

Book cover image of The History of the Peloponnesian War: Revised Edition by Thucydides

Authors: Thucydides, Rex Warner (Translator), M. I. Finley (Introduction), M. I. Finley
ISBN-13: 9780140440393, ISBN-10: 0140440399
Format: Paperback
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Date Published: September 1954
Edition: Reprint

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Author Biography: Thucydides

Thucydides (c. 460 b.c.-400 b.c.) was a general who was exiled for his failure to defend the Greek city of Amphipolis in Thrace. During his exile, he began compiling histories and accounts of the war from various participants.

Rex Warner (1905-1986) was a classical scholar of Wadham College, Oxford, and served as university professor of the University of Connecticut.

M. I. Finley was a professor of ancient history and master of Darwin College, Cambridge. He died in 1986.

Book Synopsis

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.

Table of Contents

Book I
I.The State of Greece from the earliest Times to the Commencement of the Peloponnesian War1
II.Causes of the War--The Affair of Epidamnus--The Affair of Potidaea11
III.Congress of the Peloponnesian Confederacy at Lacedaemon28
IV.From the end of the Persian to the beginning of the Peloponnesian War--The Progress from Supremacy to Empire39
V.Second Congress at Lacedaemon--Preparations for War and Diplomatic Skirmishes--Cylon--Pausanias--Themistocles50
Book II
VI.Beginning of the Peloponnesian War--First Invasion of Attica--Funeral Oration of Pericles67
VII.Second Year of the War--The Plague of Athens--Position and Policy of Pericles--Fall of Potidaea87
VIII.Third Year of the War--Investment of Plataea--Naval Victories of Phormio--Thracian Irruption into Macedonia under Sitalces99
Book III
IX.Fourth and Fifth Years of the War--Revolt of Mitylene119
X.Fifth Year of the War--Trial and Execution of the Plataeans--Corcyraean Revolution140
XI.Sixth Year of the War--Campaigns of Demosthenes in Western Greece--Ruin of Ambracia155
Book IV
XII.Seventh Year of the War--Occupation of Pylos--Surrender of the Spartan Army in Sphacteria169
XIII.Seventh and Eighth Years of the War--End of Corcyraean Revolution--Peace of Gela--Capture of Nisaea187
XIV.Eighth and Ninth Years of the War--Invasion of Boeotia--Fall of Amphipolis--Brilliant Successes of Brasidas200
Book V
XV.Tenth Year of the War--Death of Cleon and Brasidas--Peace of Nicias229
XVI.Feeling against Sparta in Peloponnese--League of the Mantineans, Eleans, Argives, and Athenians--Battle of Mantinea and Breaking up of the League240
XVII.Sixteenth Year of the War--The Melian Conference--Fate of Melos267
Book VI
XVIII.Seventeenth Year of the War--The Sicilian Campaign--Affair of the Hermae--Departure of the Expedition275
XIX.Seventeenth Year of the War--Parties at Syracuse--Story of Harmodius and Aristogiton--Disgrace of Alcibiades290
XX.Seventeenth and Eighteenth Years of the War--Inaction of the Athenian Army--Alcibiades at Sparta--Investment of Syracuse303
Book VII
XXI.Eighteenth and Nineteenth Years of the War--Arrival of Gylippus at Syracuse--Fortification of Decelea--Successes of the Syracusans325
XXII.Nineteenth Year of the War--Arrival of Demosthenes--Defeat of the Athenians at Epipolae--Folly and Obstinacy of Nicias344
XXIII.Nineteenth Year of the War--Battles in the Great Harbour--Retreat and Annihilation of the Athenian Army349
Book VIII
XXIV.Nineteenth and Twentieth Years of the War--Revolt of Ionia--Intervention of Persia--The War in Ionia369
XXV.Twentieth and Twenty-first Years of the War--Intrigues of Alcibiades--Withdrawal of the Persian Subsidies--Oligarchical Coup d'Etat at Athens--Patriotism of the Army at Samos387
XXVI.Twenty-first Year of the War--Recall of Alcibiades to Samos--Revolt of Euboea and Downfall of the Four Hundred--Battle of Cynossema403
Maps419

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