Reason Read: ancient history, nonfiction
This was not an easy read. A lot of towns, names and all in all it was often a blur. I did enjoy some points made in debates and the discussions on oligarchy, democracy, and constitution. I think this might be a reference book but not something I would want to read cover to cover again. ( )

The version I read was an abridged edition - 96 pages - old Danish translation that were used for high school. Interesting to read about men doing sports naked, about very detailed description of some sort of plague or epidemic - really horrible - that they couldn't find a cure for. But mostly it was long speeches of peace-negotiations or war declarations with moral arguments on why a city should be spared or everyone killed in it. ( )

As this book has been review a zillion times I'm not going to repeat the effort (plus I'm super busy at the moment), but I'll explain why I gave it a three at least.

It's a classic of course, and the translation seems pretty good to my relatively untrained eyes/ears, but the narration was definitely sub-par. I've no idea if there are more recent audiobooks, but I'd definitely recommend looking for one before going for this one by Pat Bottino--or just read a non-audio version of course. ( )

The Peloponnesian War

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. 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. Professor Bernstein was so right. My older son commented that it would take me as long to read it as the wars lasted. Almost exactly true, from 1978 till now. In reality in the last few years I have been interspersing reading it with other books. I still have a few pages of Appendix 4 to go but basically I’m done.

The book is not typical of anti-war tracts, railing against the establishment. It makes its significant anti-war points far more subtlety. There are eloquent passages about the indescribable suffering of the soldiers. The book is laced with wisdom for the ages, including a good section on how no good deed goes unpunished. 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 indirectly hints at how Greece’s golden-age strength was much diminished by the fratricidal Peloponnesian wars and the struggles with Syracuse.

The book is quite a slog, but I recommend it highly to any history buff. It is great “primary source” literature, albeit edited and translated.
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Surprisingly fascinating book ( )