History of the Peloponnesian War

Thucydides' history of the war between Athens and the Peloponnesians (led by Sparta) really picked up in the middle part (when I started figuring out which cities were on what side) and kept my interest to the end. Well, not the end exactly because the translator/editor of the edition I checked out, Sir Richard Livingstone (1880-1960), cuts off the last book with a note that it's unrevised and the "least interesting part." I'm grateful to Sir Richard, since this way I could put down the book still liking Thucydides.

Th sets up the major decisions made by each side during the war (431–404 BC) by pitting two orators against each other -- one honest and reasonable and pretty obviously right, and the other some combination of self-serving politician/ hardened pragmatist/clever villain. Th is reconstructing these speeches from memory or from hearsay, so he can make the side he agrees with sound right; but he does it so well that I don't blame him for it.

One of my favorite villains is Alcibades. When we first meet him, he tells the assembly at Athens that he's worthy of a command in the army and his advice should be taken seriously because he represented Athens in the Olympic games with seven chariots, "a number never before entered by any private person," and won 1st, 2nd and 4th (VI:16). He then proceeds to talk Athens into attempting to invade Sicily, with himself as one of the generals. While he's in Sicily with the army, public opinion turns against Alcibades, and he's sent for to stand trial for sacrilege (probably a trumped-up charge, Thucydides admits). Al and some fellow-accused escape while their ship is stopped at a port and make their way to Lacedaemon (leading city of Sparta). Al ingratiates himself to the anti-democratic Spartans by telling them that among "men of sense" like himself in Athens democracy was "an acknowledged folly" but of course they didn't think it wise to try to change the system of government during the war (VI:89). (This rings pretty true since Al's enemies in Athens did accuse him of wanting to overthrow the democracy, but they thought the sacrilege charge would be easier to make stick.) Al encourages the Spartans to send reinforcements to help the Sicilians fight the Athenian invaders, and he gives specific advice as to where a fortification might be set up to most hurt the flow of food and revenue into Athens. This works quite well and leads to the defeat of the Athenian army, the capture and execution of the other Athenian generals, and the eventual downfall of the Athenian empire.

Besides the speeches, there are false informers, daring escapes by night, sad stories of the innocent doomed, and a lot of building of siege-walls.