It is great “primary source” literature, albeit edited and translated. The book is quite a slog, but I recommend it highly to any history buff. The book indirectly hints at how Greece’s golden-age strength was much diminished by the fratricidal Peloponnesian wars and the struggles with Syracuse.

Or the differences in dynamic societies (often water-oriented) such as Athens and Syracuse, on Sicily, contrasted with Sparta, bigger on “hoplites” or heavily armed land troops. The book is laced with wisdom for the ages, including a good section on how no good deed goes unpunished. The History of the Peloponnesian War is a historical account of the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC), which was fought between the Peloponnesian League (led by. There are eloquent passages about the indescribable suffering of the soldiers. It makes its significant anti-war points far more subtlety. The book is not typical of anti-war tracts, railing against the establishment. I still have a few pages of Appendix 4 to go but basically I’m done. In reality in the last few years I have been interspersing reading it with other books. My older son commented that it would take me as long to read it as the wars lasted. When I was in college in 1978 my professor, Alvin Bernstein, said that Thucydides would always be a “friend.” Too bad I didn’t read the entire book back then, or even all of the assigned portions of the book. This book is fantastic, among my few “five stars.” That honor goes also to Democracy in America and the Old Testament classics that have more than stood the test of time. November 22, 2022: A great deal has happened since our last update The most up-to-date versions of the Greek and Latin sources in Perseus are available on.

Best books on the peloponnesian war