Thucydides

Thucydides' classic chronicle of the war between Athens and Sparta from 431 to 404 BCE persists as one of the most brilliant histories of all time. As one who actually participated in the conflict, Thucydides recognized the effect it would have on the history of Greece above all other wars. With a passion for accuracy and a contempt for myth and romance, he compiled an exhaustively factual record of the disaster that eventually ended the Athenian empire.Conflicts between Athens and Sparta over shipping, trade, and colonial expansion came to a head in 431 BCE, when the entire Greek world was plunged into twenty-seven years of war. This watershed event concerns not only military prowess but also perennial conflicts between might and right, imperial powers and subject peoples. Extraordinary writing, scrupulous methods, and keen political insight make this account a joy to read.

"Adapted from Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian Wars and Plato's Dialogue with Alcibiades by John Barton 2,500 years ago, the great war between Athens and Sparta began. It lasted 27 years and involved most of the many Greek states in the Eastern Mediterranean. These shared a common language and were linked by trade and an ever-changing web of alliance. The History of the Peloponnesian War was written by Thucydides, an Athenian general sent into exile by his countrymen. He was the first man to attempt an objective history of the political complexities of his time, and to make a model, an anatomy, of political behaviour that, he wrote, may be useful in times to come. His method was to seek eyewitnesses for what was said and done, and to report all speakers fairly and fully. When evidence for what was said was lacking or self-contradictory, he did not hesitate to imagine the words which, as he put it, 'the situation seemed to require'. He died before the war ended. His book is unfinished."