{"product_id":"the-peloponnesian-war-isbn-9780142004371","title":"The Peloponnesian War","description":"\u003cb\u003eA chronicle of the rise and fall of a great empire, and an examination of the dark times that still resonate today\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFor three decades in the fifth century b.c., the ancient world was torn apart by a conflict that was as dramatic, divisive, and destructive as the world wars of the twentieth century: the Peloponnesian War. Donald Kagan, one of the world’s most respected classical, political, and military historians, presents a new account of this vicious war of Greek against Greek, Athenian against Spartan. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Peloponnesian War\u003c\/i\u003e is a magisterial work of history written for general readers, offering a fresh examination of a pivotal moment in Western civilization. This lively, readable narrative conveys a richly detailed portrait of a vanished world while honoring its timeless relevance.The Peloponnesian WarIntroduction\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePart One. The Road To War\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter One: The Great Rivalry (479-439*)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSparta and Its Alliance\u003cbr\u003eAthens and Its Empire\u003cbr\u003eAthens Against Sparta\u003cbr\u003eThe Thirty Years' Peace\u003cbr\u003eThreats to Peace: Thurii\u003cbr\u003eThe Samian Rebellion\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter Two: \"A Quarrel in a Far-away Country\" (436-433)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEpidamnus\u003cbr\u003eCorinth\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter Three: Enter Athens (433-432)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Battle of Sybota\u003cbr\u003ePotidaea\u003cbr\u003eThe Megarian Decree\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter Four: The Decisions for War (432)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSparta Chooses War\u003cbr\u003eThe Athenian Decision For War\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePart Two. Pericles' War\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter Five: War Aims and Resources (432-431)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSparta\u003cbr\u003eAthens\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter Six: The Theban Attack on Plataea (431)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Spartan Invasion of Attica\u003cbr\u003eAttacks on Pericles\u003cbr\u003eThe Athenian Response\u003cbr\u003ePericles' Funeral Oration\u003cbr\u003eThe War's First Year: An Accounting\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter Seven: The Plague (430-429)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEpidaurus\u003cbr\u003eThe Plague in Athens\u003cbr\u003ePericles Under Fire\u003cbr\u003ePeace Negotiations\u003cbr\u003ePericles Condemned\u003cbr\u003eThe Spartans Go to Sea\u003cbr\u003ePotidaea Recaptured\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter Eight: Pericles' Last Days (429)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSparta Attacks Plataea\u003cbr\u003eSpartan Action in the Northwest\u003cbr\u003eEnter Phormio\u003cbr\u003eThe Spartans Attack Piraeus\u003cbr\u003eThe Death of Pericles\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter Nine: Rebellion in the Empire (428-427)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe \"New Politicians\" in Athens\u003cbr\u003eConspiracy on Lesbos\u003cbr\u003eAthens Reacts\u003cbr\u003eMytilene Appeals To The Peloponnesians\u003cbr\u003eThe Siege of Mytilene\u003cbr\u003eSparta Acts On Land and Sea\u003cbr\u003eThe Fate of Mytilene\u003cbr\u003eThe Mytilene Debate: Cleon Versus Diodotus\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter Ten: Terror and  Adventure (427)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Fate of Plataea\u003cbr\u003eCivil War at Corcyra\u003cbr\u003eFirst Athenian Expedition to Sicily\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePart Three. New Strategies\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter Eleven: Demosthenes and the New Strategy (426)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Spartans in Central Greece\u003cbr\u003eAthenian Initiatives\u003cbr\u003eDemosthenes' Aetolian Campaign\u003cbr\u003eThe Spartans Attack The Northwest\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter Twelve: Pylos and Sphacteria (425)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAthens' Western Commitments\u003cbr\u003eDemosthenes' Plan: The Fort at Pylos\u003cbr\u003eThe Spartans on Sphacteria\u003cbr\u003eThe Athenian Naval Victory\u003cbr\u003eSparta's Peace Offer\u003cbr\u003eCleon Against Nicias\u003cbr\u003eThe Spartan Surrender on Sphacteria\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter Thirteen: Athens on the Offensive: Megara and Delium (424)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCythera and Thyrea\u003cbr\u003eDisappointment in Sicily\u003cbr\u003eThe Assault on Megara\u003cbr\u003eAthens' Boeotian Invasion\u003cbr\u003eDelium\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter Fourteen: Brasidas' Thracian Campaign (424-423)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Capture of Amphipolis\u003cbr\u003eThucydides at Amphipolis\u003cbr\u003eTruce\u003cbr\u003eNicias' Expedition to Thrace\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter Fifteen: The Coming of Peace (422-421)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCleon in Command\u003cbr\u003eThe Battle of Amphipolis\u003cbr\u003eThe Death of Brasidas and Cleon\u003cbr\u003eThe Coming of Peace\u003cbr\u003eThe Peace of Nicias\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePart Four. The False Peace\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter Sixteen: The Peace Unravels (421-420)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA Troubled Peace\u003cbr\u003eThe Spartan-Anthenian Alliance\u003cbr\u003eThe Argive League\u003cbr\u003eSparta's Problems\u003cbr\u003eThe Corinthians' Mysterious Policy\u003cbr\u003eThe Boeotians\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter Seventeen: The Alliance of Athens and Argos (420-418)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Athenian Breach with Sparta\u003cbr\u003eSpartan Humilations\u003cbr\u003eAlcibiades in the Peloponnesus\u003cbr\u003eThe Spartans Against Argos\u003cbr\u003eConfrontation in the Argive Plain\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter Eighteen: The Battle of Mantinea (418)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAgis' March to Tegea\u003cbr\u003eTo Force a Battle\u003cbr\u003eThe Allied Army Moves\u003cbr\u003eThe Battle\u003cbr\u003ePolitics Intervene\u003cbr\u003eThe Meaning of Mantinea\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter Nineteen: After Mantinea: Politics and Policy at Sparta and Athens (418-416)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDemocracy Restored to Argos\u003cbr\u003ePolitics at Athens\u003cbr\u003eOstracism of Hyperbolus\u003cbr\u003eThe Athenian Conquest of Melos\u003cbr\u003eNicias Against Alicibiades\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePart Five. The Disaster in Sicily\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter Twenty: The Decision (416-415)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAthens' Sicilian Connections\u003cbr\u003eThe Debate in Athens\u003cbr\u003eThe Debate to Reconsider\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter Twenty-One: The Home Front and the First Campaigns (415)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSacrilege\u003cbr\u003eWitch Hunt\u003cbr\u003eAthenian Strategy\u003cbr\u003eThe Summer Campaign of 415\u003cbr\u003eThe Flight of Alcibiades\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter Twenty-Two: The First Attack on Syracuse (415)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Athenians at Syracuse\u003cbr\u003eSyracusan Resistance\u003cbr\u003eAlcibiades At Sparta\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter Twenty-Three: The Siege of Syracuse (414)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Illness of Nicias and the Death of Lamachus\u003cbr\u003eAthens Breaks the Treaty\u003cbr\u003eHelp Arrives at Syracuse\u003cbr\u003eNicias Moves to Plemmyrium\u003cbr\u003eNicias' Letter to Athens\u003cbr\u003eThe Athenian Response\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter Twenty-Four: The Besiegers Besieged (414-413)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSparta Takes the Offensive\u003cbr\u003eThe Fort at Decelea\u003cbr\u003eReinforcements for Both Sides\u003cbr\u003eThe Capture of Plemmyrium\u003cbr\u003eThe Battle in the Great Harbor\u003cbr\u003eThe Second Athenian Armada: Demosthenes' Plan\u003cbr\u003eThe Night Attack on Epipolae\u003cbr\u003eRetreat or Remain?\u003cbr\u003eEclipse\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter Twenty-Five: Defeat and Destruction (413)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Final Naval Battle\u003cbr\u003eThe Final Retreat\u003cbr\u003eThe Fate of the Athenians\u003cbr\u003eA Judgment on Nicias\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePart Six. Revolutions in the Empire and in Athens\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter Twenty-Six: After the Disaster (413-412)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Probouloi\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSpartan Ambitions\u003cbr\u003eAgis in Command\u003cbr\u003ePersian Initiatives\u003cbr\u003eThe Spartans Chooses Chios\u003cbr\u003eAlcibiades Intervenes\u003cbr\u003eTissaphernes' Draft Treaty\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter Twenty-Seven: War in the Aegean (412-411)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAthens Fight Back\u003cbr\u003eDecision At Miletus\u003cbr\u003eAlcibiades Joins the Persians\u003cbr\u003eA New Spartan Agreement with Persia\u003cbr\u003eA New Spartan Strategy\u003cbr\u003eRebellion at Rhodes\u003cbr\u003eThe Importance of Euboea\u003cbr\u003eA New Treaty With Persia\u003cbr\u003eThe Spartans in the Hellespont\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter Twenty-Eight: The Revolutionary Movement (411)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Aristocratic Tradition\u003cbr\u003eDemocracy and the War\u003cbr\u003eThraysybulus and the Moderates\u003cbr\u003eThe Real Oligarchs\u003cbr\u003ePhrynichus Against Alcibiades\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter Twenty-Nine: The Coup (411)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePeisander's Mission to Athens\u003cbr\u003eThe Oligarchs' Breach with Alcibiades\u003cbr\u003eDivisions Among the Plotters\u003cbr\u003eThe Democracy Overthrown\u003cbr\u003eThe Oligarchic Leaders\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter Thirty: The Four Hundred in Power (411)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Democracy at Samos\u003cbr\u003ePharnabazus and the Hellespont\u003cbr\u003eAlcibiades Recalled\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter Thirty-One: The Five Thousand (411)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDissent Within the Four Hundred\u003cbr\u003eThe Oligarchic Plot to Betray Athens\u003cbr\u003eThe Threat to Euboea\u003cbr\u003eThe Fall of the Four Hundred\u003cbr\u003eThe Constitution of The Five Thousand\u003cbr\u003eThe Five Thousand in Action\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter Thirty-Two: War in the Hellespont (411-410)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe Phantom Phoenician Fleet\u003cbr\u003eThe Battle of Cynossema\u003cbr\u003eThe Battle of Abydos\u003cbr\u003eThe Battle of Cyzicus\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003ePart Seven. The Fall Of Athens\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eChapter Thirty-Three: The Restoration (410-409)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSparta's Peace Offer\u003cbr\u003eDemocracy Restored\u003cbr\u003eThe War Resumed\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter Thirty-Four: The Return of Alcibiades (409-408)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAthens Attempts to Clear the Straits\u003cbr\u003eAthenian Negotiations with Persia\u003cbr\u003eAlcibiades Returns\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter Thirty-Five: Cyrus, Lysander, and the Fall of Alcibiades (408-406)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePrince Cyrus Replaces Tissaphernes\u003cbr\u003eThe Emergence of Lysander\u003cbr\u003eThe Collaboration of Cyrus and Lysander\u003cbr\u003eThe Battle of Notium\u003cbr\u003eThe Fall of Alcibiades\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter Thirty-Six: Arginusae (406)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe New Navarch\u003cbr\u003eConon Trapped at Mytilene\u003cbr\u003eAthens Rebuilds a Navy\u003cbr\u003eThe Battle of Arginusae\u003cbr\u003eRescue and Recovery\u003cbr\u003eThe Trial of the Generals\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eChapter Thirty-Seven: The Fall of Athens (405-404)\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAnother Spartan Peace Offer\u003cbr\u003eThe Return of Lysander\u003cbr\u003eThe Battle of Aegospotami\u003cbr\u003eThe Results of the Battle\u003cbr\u003eThe Fate of Athens\u003cbr\u003eTheramenes Negotiates a Peace\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eConclusion\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSources for the History of the Peloponnesian War\u003cbr\u003eIndex\u003c\/p\u003e\"The best account [of the Peloponnesian War] now available.\" —\u003cb\u003eLos Angeles Times Book Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"A fresh, clear and fast-moving account... for general readers.\" —\u003cb\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Drawing on incomparable knowledge as a classicist, international relations theorist and military historian, Donald Kagan... has devoted a single volume to guiding us through that epic of miscalculation, hubris and strategic overreach, supplying\u003cb\u003esupplemental observations and correctives to Thucydides’ classic History of the Peloponnesian War.\" —\u003cb\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eDonald Kagan is Sterling Professor of Classics and History at Yale University. His four-volume \u003cb\u003eHistory of the Peloponnesian War\u003c\/b\u003e is the leading scholarly work on the subject. He is also the author of many books on ancient and modern topics.INTRODUCTION\u003cp\u003eFor almost three decades at the end of the fifth century b.c. the Athenian Empire fought the Spartan Alliance in a terrible war that changed the Greek world and its civilization forever. Only a half-century before its outbreak the united Greeks, led by Sparta and Athens, had fought off an assault by the mighty Persian Empire, preserving their independence by driving Persia's armies and navies out of Europe and recovering the Greek cities on the coasts of Asia Minor from its grasp.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis astonishing victory opened a proud era of growth, prosperity, and confidence in Greece. The Athenians, especially, flourished, increasing in population and establishing an empire that brought them wealth and glory. Their young democracy came to maturity, bringing political participation, opportunity, and political power even to the lowest class of citizens, and their novel constitution went on to take root in other Greek cities. It was a time of extraordinary cultural achievement, as well, probably unmatched in originality and richness in all of human history. Dramatic poets like Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes raised tragedy and comedy to a level never surpassed. The architects and sculptors who created the Parthenon and other buildings on the Acropolis in Athens, at Olympia, and all over the Greek world powerfully influenced the course of Western art and still do so today. Natural philosophers like Anaxagoras and Democritus used unaided human reason to seek an understanding of the physical world, and such pioneers of moral and political philosophy as Protagoras and Socrates did the same in the realm of human affairs. Hippocrates and his school made great advances in medical science, and Herodotus invented historiography as we understand it today.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Peloponnesian War not only brought this remarkable period to an end, but was recognized as a critical turning point even by those who fought it. The great historian Thucydides tells us that he undertook his history as the war began,\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ein the belief that it would be great and noteworthy above all the wars that had gone before, inferring this from the fact that both powers were then at their best in preparedness for war in every way, and seeing the rest of the Hellenic people taking sides with one side or the other, some at once, others planning to do so. For this was the greatest upheaval that had ever shaken the Hellenes, extending also to some part of the barbarians, one might say even to a very large part of mankind. (1.1.2)1\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFrom the perspective of the fifth-century Greeks the Peloponnesian War was legitimately perceived as a world war, causing enormous destruction of life and property, intensifying factional and class hostility, and dividing the Greek states internally and destabilizing their relationship to one another, which ultimately weakened their capacity to resist conquest from outside. It also reversed the tendency toward the growth of democracy. When Athens was powerful and successful, its democratic constitution had a magnetic effect on other states, but its defeat was decisive in the political development of Greece, sending it in the direction of oligarchy.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe Peloponnesian War was also a conflict of unprecedented brutality, violating even the harsh code that had previously governed Greek warfare and breaking through the thin line that separates civilization from savagery. Anger, frustration, and the desire for vengeance increased as the fighting dragged on, resulting in a progression of atrocities that included maiming and killing captured opponents; throwing them into pits to die of thirst, starvation, and exposure; and hurling them into the sea to drown. Bands of marauders murdered innocent children. Entire cities were destroyed, their men killed, their women and children sold as slaves. On the island of Corcyra, now called Corfu, the victorious faction in a civil war brought on by the larger struggle butchered their fellow citizens for a full week: \"Sons were killed by their father, and suppliants dragged from the altar or slain upon it\" (3.81.2-5).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAs the violence spread it brought a collapse in the habits, institutions, beliefs, and restraints that are the foundations of civilized life. The meanings of words changed to suit the bellicosity: \"Reckless audacity came to be considered the courage of a loyal ally; prudent hesitation, specious cowardice; moderation was held to be a cloak for unmanliness.\" Religion lost its restraining power, \"but the use of fair phrases to arrive at guilty ends was in high reputation.\" Truth and honor disappeared, \"and society became divided into camps in which no man trusted his fellow\" (3.82.1, 8; 3.83.1). Such was the conflict that inspired Thucydides' mordant observations on the character of war as \"a savage schoolmaster that brings the characters of most people down to the level of their current circumstances\" (3.82.2).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAlthough the Peloponnesian War ended more than twenty-four hundred years ago it has continued to fascinate readers of every subsequent age. Writers have used it to illuminate the First World War, most frequently to help explain its causes, but its greatest influence as an analytical tool may have come during the Cold War, which dominated the second half of the twentieth century, and which likewise witnessed a world divided into two great power blocs, each under a powerful leader. Generals, diplomats, statesmen, and scholars alike have compared the conditions that led to the Greek war with the rivalry between NATO and the Warsaw Pact.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut the story of what actually took place two and a half millennia in the past, and its deeper meaning, are ultimately not easy to grasp. By far the most important source of our knowledge is the history written by the war's contemporary and participant Thucydides. His work is justly admired as a masterpiece of historical writing and hailed for its wisdom about the nature of war, international relations, and mass psychology. It has also come to be regarded as a foundation stone of historical method and political philosophy. It is not, however, completely satisfactory as a chronicle of the war and all that the war can teach us. Its most obvious shortcoming is that it is incomplete, stopping in midsentence seven years before the war's end. For an account of the final part of the conflict we must rely on writers of much less talent and with little or no direct knowledge of events. At the very least, a modern treatment of accessible scope is needed to make sense of the conclusion of the war.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut even the period treated by Thucydides requires illumination if the modern reader is to have the fullest understanding of its military, political, and social complexities. The works of other ancient writers and contemporary inscriptions discovered and studied in the last two centuries have filled gaps and have sometimes raised questions about the story as Thucydides tells it. Finally, any satisfactory history of the war also demands a critical look at Thucydides himself. His was an extraordinary and original mind, and more than any other historian in antiquity he placed the highest value on accuracy and objectivity. We must not forget, however, that he was also a human being with human emotions and foibles. In the original Greek his style is often very compressed and difficult to understand, so that any translation is by necessity an interpretation. The very fact that he was a participant in the events, moreover, influenced his judgments in ways that must be prudently evaluated. Simply accepting his interpretations uncritically would be as limiting as accepting without question Winston Churchill's histories and his understanding of the two world wars in which he played so important a role.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this book I attempt a new history of the Peloponnesian War designed to meet the needs of readers in the twenty-first century. It is based on the scholarship employed in my four volumes on the war aimed chiefly at a scholarly audience,2 but my goal here is a readable narrative in a single volume to be read by the general reader for pleasure and to gain the wisdom that so many have sought in studying this war. I have avoided making comparisons between events in it and those in later history, although many leap to mind, in the hope that an uninterrupted account will better allow readers to draw their own conclusions.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eI undertake this project after so many years because I believe, more than ever, that the story of the Peloponnesian War is a powerful tale that may be read as an extraordinary human tragedy, recounting the rise and fall of a great empire, the clash between two very different societies and ways of life, the interplay of intelligence and chance in human affairs, and the role of brilliantly gifted individuals, as well as masses of people in determining the course of events while subject to the limitations imposed upon them by nature, by fortune, and by one another. I hope to demonstrate, also, that a study of the Peloponnesian War is a source of wisdom about the behavior of human beings under the enormous pressures imposed by war, plague, and civil strife, and about the potentialities of leadership and the limits within which it must inevitably operate.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e1Adapted from the translation of Richard Crawley (Modern Library, New York, 1951). Throughout, references are to Thucydides' history of the Peloponnesian War unless otherwise indicated. The numbers refer to the traditional divisions by book, chapter, and section.\u003cbr\u003e2These have been published by the Cornell University Press. Their titles are The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War (1969), The Archidamian War (1974), The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition (1981), and The Fall of the Athenian Empire (1987).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Penguin Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302659477733,"sku":"NP9780142004371","price":25.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780142004371.jpg?v=1767740899","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/the-peloponnesian-war-isbn-9780142004371","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}