The Peloponnesian War

Thucydides

University of Chicago Press, Oct 15, 1989 - History - 608 pages

This powerful translation by Thomas Hobbes has long been considered the truest to the original Greek. Hobbes's eloquent and lucid style captures Thucydides' use of language in recreating the Athens-Sparta conflict. It is Thucydides special ability to portray and enliven that has provided us with the most revealing accounts of the people and events in that long war: Pericles' funeral oration, the plague, the civil war in Corcyra, the debate between Cleon and Diodotus over the fate of Mitylene, the Melian Dialogue, and above all the ruin of the Sicilian translations that are works of art in their own right.

Contents

• THE FIRST BOOK: 1
• THE SECOND BOOK: 89
• THE THIRD BOOK: 157
• THE FOURTH BOOK: 229
• THE FIFTH BOOK: 311
• THE SIXTH BOOK: 375
• THE SEVENTH BOOK: 443
• THE EIGHTH BOOK: 503
• Of the Life and History of Thucydides: 569
• Index: 587

About the author

Thucydides (c. 460-c. 400 BC) was an Athenian general and historian. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens. In the first sentence of the book, he describes himself: "Thucydides, an Athenian, wrote the war of the Peloponnesians and the Athenians as they warred against each other, beginning to write as soon as the war was on foot, with expectation it should prove a great one and most worthy the relation of all that had been before it." Thomas Hobbes was born in Malmesbury, the son of a wayward country vicar. He was educated at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, and was supported during his long life by the wealthy Cavendish family, the Earls of Devonshire. Traveling widely, he met many of the leading intellectuals of the day, including Francis Bacon, Galileo Galilei, and Rene Descartes. As a philosopher and political theorist, Hobbes established---along with, but independently of, Descartes---early modern modes of thought in reaction to the scholasticism that characterized the seventeenth century. Because of his ideas, he was constantly in dispute with scientists and theologians, and many of his works were banned. His writings on psychology raised the possibility (later realized) that psychology could become a natural science, but his theory of politics is his most enduring achievement. In brief, his theory states that the problem of establishing order in society requires a sovereign to whom people owe loyalty and who in turn has duties toward his or her subjects. His prose masterpiece Leviathan (1651) is regarded as a major contribution to the theory of the state. David Grene (1913-2002) taught classics for many years at the University of Chicago. He was a founding member of the Committee on Social Thought.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Peloponnesian War
• Author: Thucydides
• Editors: Thomas Hobbes, David Grene
• Translated by: Thomas Hobbes, David Grene
• Contributor: David Grene
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1989
• ISBN: 0226801063, 9780226801063
• Length: 608 pages
• Subjects: History / Ancient / Greece; History / General; History / Military / Ancient; Literary Collections / Essays