The History of the Peloponnesian War
Thucydides
The History of the Peloponnesian War
ClassicsNonfictionHistoryMilitary History & Strategy
20h 57m listening
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"The History of the Peloponnesian War" by Thucydides is a historical account written between 431-411 BC. It chronicles the devastating conflict between Sparta's Peloponnesian League and Athens' Delian League. Written by an Athenian general who fought in the war, this unfinished work ends abruptly mid-sentence. Considered one of the earliest scholarly histories, it employs strict chronology and extensive speeches while attempting objectivity. Thucydides attributes events to human choices rather than divine intervention, establishing methods that shaped Western historical writing.
Contains spoilers for the entire book
- Themes
- Atmosphere
About the book
The History of the Peloponnesian War is Thucydides’ account of the long conflict between Athens and Sparta and their allies that began in 431 BC. An Athenian who served as a general and was exiled after failing to save the city of Amphipolis, he began writing as soon as the war started, and his narrative breaks off in 411 BC, several years before its end. Thucydides set out to write a possession for all time rather than a pleasing entertainment, examining evidence, causes and human motives. His history includes the plague at Athens, the funeral oration of Pericles, the harsh logic of the Melian Dialogue and the disaster of the Sicilian expedition, and it is still read as a founding work of history and political thought.
Characters
Pericles — Athenian statesman
A leading advocate of Athenian policy in the early war, presented through speeches and political decisions.
Cleon — Athenian politician
An assertive democratic leader prominent in debates over imperial policy and the conduct of the war.
Brasidas — Spartan commander
An energetic general whose northern campaigns challenge Athenian power.
Nicias — Athenian commander
A cautious statesman associated with peace negotiations and the Sicilian expedition.
Alcibiades — Athenian politician and commander
An ambitious public figure whose shifting allegiances affect the course of the conflict.
Gylippus — Spartan commander
A Spartan officer sent to assist Syracuse against the Athenian expedition.
Thucydides — Historian and participant
The Athenian historian who records the war and also describes his own limited military role.
About the author
Thucydides (c. 460–c. 400 BC) was an Athenian historian and general. His family was wealthy and had connections with Thrace, where it held rights to gold mines. When war broke out between Athens and Sparta in 431 BC, he began at once to record it, believing it would be the greatest war yet fought. He caught the plague that struck Athens soon afterwards and survived. In 424 BC, as one of the city’s generals, he failed to prevent the Spartan commander Brasidas from taking the important city of Amphipolis, and was exiled for twenty years, a period he used to gather information from both sides of the conflict. His History of the Peloponnesian War, unfinished at his death, breaks off in the events of 411 BC. Its insistence on evidence, causes and human motives has made him a founder of history as a critical discipline and of political realism.