The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War

I'm rating this at 5***** primarily for the quality of this "Landmark" edition edited by Robert B. Strassler. Personally, I find most of Thucydides a very tedious read because of the "chronicle" style in which he writes, which follows the history of the Peloponnesian War in strict chronological order and fails to give a good presentation of the overall strategy of individual land and naval campaigns. (Book VI, the history of the Sicilian Campaign, is an exception, probably because not much else occurred in other combat theaters during that period so that the Sicilian events proceed largely uninterruptedly.) My own particular interest was the "treason of Alcibiades," considering his involvement with Socrates and his presence in Plato's show more dialogues.

What makes it possible to get through this lengthy history is the high quality of annotations and the numerous maps included in this edition (which seems typical of "Landmark" editions). If you read straight through, you'll find much of the footnoting repetitive, as are the numerous maps, but the editor's goal is to protect the reader from the need to flip back and forth to a "maps section" by providing a new map, however repetitive, within a couple of pages of the referring text. Also, the repetitiveness of the annotations (I don't know how many times the terms "hoplite" and "pelast" are footnote-defined) makes the text readable for someone who is not going through sequentially from start to finish, which makes this a useful edition for classroom use. The excellent maps are particularly helpful in a text that concentrates so much on military history, both land and naval warfare.

This "Landmark" edition also includes eleven appendices on such subjects as Athenian and Spartan society, military and naval warfare, religion, coinage, and other topics.

I'm not at all urging the reading of Thucydides, but if you're going to read him, use this "Landmark" edition (ISBN 978-0684827902). show less

I have seen many reviews claiming that, although an accomplished historian, Thucydides is a dry writer. Thus I've started reading this book with some trepidation, expecting to be bored out of my mind. And indeed, the beginning was more than a little dry.

However, somewhere after the first 1/3 of the book my opinion changed. I hardly know enough of history to judge Thucydides on his accuracy on these matters, but he is certainly a talented writer. His writing is subtle, elegant and powerful, invoking a great tragedy about pride, fall and the price of power.

The effect is reached by foreshadowing, by subtly but constantly recurring themes and by the composition itself rather than colorful statements. To illustrate what I am talking about: a show more "pure" dispassionate historian would simply describe the events and left finding similarities between the expansion, overreach and fall of Athens and defeat of Persia earlier to the discretion of the reader. A somewhat talented author would have spelled it out explicitly and drew analogies in author's voice. But Thucydides makes Athens reference their own defeat of Persia as a justification to their deeds over and over again, even as they are about to commit the very same mistakes, both marking the similarity, underscoring dramatic irony and foretelling an inevitability of defeat.

On the same note, the passionate plea for justice followed by a few short sentences to the effect "and then they got killed" is often more powerful than a vivid description would have been.

A few words about the edition: While Landmark edition is probably the best one so far, Kindle version has serious issues. Namely, it was next to impossible to navigate between the footnotes while reading - they are all concentrated at the end of the chapter with no hyperlinks for quick navigation provided. The maps are definitely helpful, but after a while become redundant. The same goes for footnotes themselves - they constantly provide redundant information while failing to clarify difficult places. I don't need to be reminded what a proxenus is each time the word is mentioned - once is enough. But I would like to be reminded who the person I've last seen mentioned a hundred pages ago is and how did they come to their current situation, but this is usually not covered by footnotes. show less

This well-edited edition, with lots of footnotes and maps is about the only way for a non-classically educated reader to appreciate Thucydides' account of the horrors of the Peloponnesian War. But while there are some things to admire about the Greeks, this story of mass murder masquerading as war and the endless stupidity that destroyed Athens won't raise your opinion of the Greeks or the Ancients in general.

This is a lightly revised edition of Richard Crawley's old 19th-century translation; reasonably accurate, readable if not particularly inspiring. The maps, notes, and appendices (standard features of the Landmark series) make it much easier to follow the events and keep track of people and places.

As for the actual history, Thucydides does seem to try to be objective. He was an Athenian and a general during the earlier part of the war, then exiled and resident in the Peloponnesus for the later part. He was an eyewitness to much and knew many of the players. He does not hide his admiration for Pericles, or his contempt for Cleon and Alcibiades. Nor does he whitewash the Athenians' hubris and overreach, which led to their downfall. His show more enumeration of the evils of political factions (stasis) is a cautionary tale for contemporary America. show less

Don't let the fact this book was written over 2,000 years ago sway you from reading it! I'll admit I was hesitant about reading Thucydides because I'm not a big fan of non-fiction or a serious military history buff, and more specifically, was never that interested in ancient Greek history.

However, after I happened to watch the movie 300 (I know, that movie is basically all fantasy and action Hollywood style, but it was still good!) I became instantly fascinated by the history behind the movie and started buying books on the ancient Greeks to learn more.

Prior to investing the money into purchasing this version of the History of the Peloponnesian War, I borrowed a different version at the library that didn't include maps or appendices show more to explain about ancient Greek society and life. That was a wrong move for a novice! It is imperative that you read Thucydides with lots of maps of ancient Greece so you can follow the narrative of battles taking place around Attica, Peloponnese, and surrounding islands. It is easier to understand what is going on if you have good maps. The Landmark Thucydides was very helpful in that regard. There are enough maps scattered throughout the book, in addition, with side margins and footnotes that I felt were very helpful for the beginner. The book is quite hefty so you'll have a hard time lugging it around, but all you really need is a quiet spot to settle down and read.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that this book didn't really read as a "history book". It had a story-like quality and feel to the narrative that I enjoyed immensely and I found myself quickly enthralled. At times I had to stop and remember that this author has been dead and gone for over 2,000 years. Thucydides' words literally came alive from the pages, and it was eerie how many things he observed so long ago still hold true today.

I have only read this translation (Crawley), and although it isn't written in a direct style of English, I found it was surprisingly easy to read. It took me a few pages to become accustomed to it, but I became so engrossed in Thucydide's narrative that it wasn't really an issue for me. I would recommend reading this book slowly, it's not meant to be read quickly, but to savor and ponder over what you have just read.

If you've ever had a passing interest in ancient Greek history, in particular ancient military battles, Thucydides would be a good starting point. show less

This bad-boy took me literally years, off-and-on, to finish, a true exercise in patience. The annotations, especially the summaries in the margins were extremely valuable, as were the interesting glossary chapters. If you're going to read Thucydides, read this wonderful edition. Only Strassler could make this palatable.

What an amazing civil war! Imagine a 3-decade long war with NYC against Boston. Yonkers, Queens, Newark, Hartford, Lawrence, and Lowell side with Boston. Cambridge, Providence, Worcester, New Haven Albany, Brooklyn, Staten Island and Cincinnati side with New York. A full-out civil war, with cruelty, deceit, bullying, scheming and conniving at every turn. What a slog. I'm very happy that I finished it.

The conventional attitude is that in ancient Greece, Athens and her allies were the good guys while Sparta and hers were the equivalent of the forces of evil. But this is a gross misrepresentation as it turns out. We in the West are heavily invested in a belief in Athenian democracy, and while Athens was indeed a democracy at home, she ran a rather oppressive and authoritarian empire abroad, and therein lay the seeds of her undoing.

The twenty-seven-year struggle between Athens and Sparta cannot be summarized — easily or otherwise! In a brief review such as this, one can only speak in generalities and perhaps mention a highlight or two.

The main reason Sparta decided to muster her forces against Athens was because she feared the show more growing strength of the Athenian Empire which had ballooned in the fifty years following the Persian wars described by Herodotus. And Sparta's decision occurred at a time when many of Athens' subject city-states, especially those in and around western Asia Minor, were beginning to chafe under the financial demands exacted by Athens to maintain her enormous fleet and commercial interests. Athens needed her Aegean allies to protect the grain trade emanating from the Black Sea region. And with a growing population at home and abroad, Athens needed that grain not only for commercial purposes but to feed the people.

The war began when Sparta marched across the Isthmus of Corinth for the first time and invaded Athenian territory. Pericles, who was one of the Athenian leaders at the time, believed the best policy was for people from the countryside to move inside the city walls and wait until Sparta went home. There were skirmishes to keep Sparta well away from Athens proper, but Pericles deemed it was better to absorb property destruction than to risk losing people. This routine was repeated every summer for seven years running. Incidentally and ironically, a large part of the Athenian population died in at least two visitations of a devastating plague, which may have resulted from overcrowding in the city caused by Pericles' policies. He, too, succumbed to the plague in the second year of the war.

At the same time allies on both sides scattered around the Greek mainland and the Aegean engaged in more skirmishes. Battles were not fought to the death. An attack would be made, and when daylight was evaporating, the parties would stop fighting, declare victory whether on land or at sea, and return to their camps to fight another day. It seemed that both sides frequently took the attitude they had won the day's campaign.

Both sides had many opportunities to achieve a decisive end to the war, but either through delay or misunderstanding did not follow through with their advantage. Each side believed it could wear the other down by attrition. There were a number of significant conflicts in various parts of the Greek world that lasted for many months or even several years — such as the infamous and ill-fated Sicilian Expedition, which occurred during the 17th, 18th and 19th years of the war and came close to being the ruination of Athens — but after the twenty-one years of Thucydides' account, neither side had been able to deliver the coup de grace.

Thucydides stopped writing almost mid-sentence, and no one knows why he did not complete his book, for he was still alive in Athens at the end of the war. It has been left to others to provide details of the war's conclusion. In the Landmark edition, the editors provide an epilogue that outlines the events of the final years and the ultimate destruction of Athens' fleet in an overwhelming and devastating defeat. Sparta was magnanimous enough not to sack and burn the city as the Persians had done eighty years before. What was left of the Athenian army was allowed to return home, but this marked the end of the great Athenian Empire.

The Landmark Thucydides is replete with introductions, maps, illustrations, outlines, appendices, notes and a descriptive index. It is a tremendous resource for an informed reading of Thucydides' account of the Peloponnesian War. It is a tribute to those who produced it, and in almost every way it equals The Landmark Herodotus. The story seems to go on and on with one skirmish after another, but the description of battle tactics both on land and sea are fascinating. And Thucydides' relentless reporting reveals how Athenian superiority at sea was gradually surpassed by the inventiveness and ingenuity of her opponents, which is undoubtedly one of the reasons why Thucydides is still studied in war colleges everywhere. show less