History of the Peloponnesian War

A definitive and refreshingly readable new translation of Thucydides's History of the Peloponnesian War, paired with a brilliant introduction on how to read and understand Thucydides.

A HISTORY TODAY BOOK OF THE YEARAn authoritative new translation of Thucydides's masterpiece. Thucydides has been essential reading for centuries. A sweeping narrative that vividly depicts the events of the war between Athens and Sparta that began in 431 BCE and would continue until 404, his History depicts a conflict that embroiled not only mainland Greece but Greek states from the eastern Mediterranean to as far west as Italy and Sicily. The only existing contemporary narrative of this conflict, Thucydides's words brim with military, moral, and political reflections, offering critical commentary on challenges that still dominate our world today, from the strife of civil war, to the devastation of widespread plague to the nature of political power. In this dazzling new translation of one of the great masterworks of classical Greece, Robin Waterfield's version of The History of the Peloponnesian War offers an incisive and timely window onto the nature and causes of warfare.