What do you think?
Rate this book
The Complete Works of Thucydides
The Ancient Classics series provides eReaders with the wisdom of the Classical world, with both English translations and the original Latin and Greek texts. This comprehensive eBook presents the complete works of the great historian Thucydides, with beautiful illustrations, informative introductions and the usual Delphi bonus material. (Version 1)
* Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Thucydides’ life and works
* Features Benjamin Jowett’s scholarly translation and the original Greek text
* Concise introduction to the text
* Excellent formatting of the texts
* Easily locate the sections you want to read with individual contents tables
* Includes a special Dual Text feature, with paragraph by paragraph access to the Greek and English translation – ideal for students of Classical Greek
* Also includes Xenophon’s seven book HELLENICA, allowing you to finish reading Thucydides’ unfinished work
* Features two bonus biographies - discover Thucydides’ ancient world
* UPDATED with corrected Greek text
* Scholarly ordering of texts into chronological order and literary genres
Please some Kindle software programs cannot display Greek characters correctly, however they do display correctly on Kindle devices.
The Translations
THE HISTORY OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR
XENOPHON’S HELLENICA
The Greek Text
PRONOUNCING ANCIENT GREEK
CONTENTS OF GREEK TEXT
Dual Text
DUAL GREEK AND ENGLISH TEXT
The Biographies
INTRODUCTION TO THUCYDIDES by Charles Forster Smith
THUCYDIDES by T. W. Lumb
* Beautifully illustrated with images relating to Thucydides’ life and works
* Features Benjamin Jowett’s scholarly translation and the original Greek text
* Concise introduction to the text
* Excellent formatting of the texts
* Easily locate the sections you want to read with individual contents tables
* Includes a special Dual Text feature, with paragraph by paragraph access to the Greek and English translation – ideal for students of Classical Greek
* Also includes Xenophon’s seven book HELLENICA, allowing you to finish reading Thucydides’ unfinished work
* Features two bonus biographies - discover Thucydides’ ancient world
* UPDATED with corrected Greek text
* Scholarly ordering of texts into chronological order and literary genres
Please some Kindle software programs cannot display Greek characters correctly, however they do display correctly on Kindle devices.
The Translations
THE HISTORY OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR
XENOPHON’S HELLENICA
The Greek Text
PRONOUNCING ANCIENT GREEK
CONTENTS OF GREEK TEXT
Dual Text
DUAL GREEK AND ENGLISH TEXT
The Biographies
INTRODUCTION TO THUCYDIDES by Charles Forster Smith
THUCYDIDES by T. W. Lumb
3167 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 1, 2013
115 people are currently reading
112 people want to read
About the author
Thucydides
1,407 books551 followersThucydides (c. 460 B.C. – c. 400 B.C.) (Greek
Θουκυδίδης
) was an Athenian historian and general. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the fifth-century BC war between Sparta and Athens until the year 411 BC. Thucydides has been dubbed the father of "scientific history" by those who accept his claims to have applied strict standards of impartiality and evidence-gathering and analysis of cause and effect, without reference to intervention by the gods, as outlined in his introduction to his work.
He also has been called the father of the school of political realism, which views the political behavior of individuals and the subsequent outcomes of relations between states as ultimately mediated by, and constructed upon, fear and self-interest. His text is still studied at universities and military colleges worldwide. The Melian dialogue is regarded as a seminal text of international relations theory, while his version of Pericles' Funeral Oration is widely studied by political theorists, historians, and students of the classics.
More generally, Thucydides developed an understanding of human nature to explain behavior in such crises as plagues, massacres, and wars.
He also has been called the father of the school of political realism, which views the political behavior of individuals and the subsequent outcomes of relations between states as ultimately mediated by, and constructed upon, fear and self-interest. His text is still studied at universities and military colleges worldwide. The Melian dialogue is regarded as a seminal text of international relations theory, while his version of Pericles' Funeral Oration is widely studied by political theorists, historians, and students of the classics.
More generally, Thucydides developed an understanding of human nature to explain behavior in such crises as plagues, massacres, and wars.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 9, 2022
This review is only of The History of the Peloponnesian War
which is a lot of fun. I was hesitant to begin with as the idea of reading about Greeks killing Greeks seemed far less interesting than reading about Greeks killing Persians. But truth be told, if they had not been so belligerent, always fighting with their neighbours and anyone else they met – the botched Athenian expedition to Egypt is often forgotten – they would not have been the highly trained fighting force which defeated the Persians at Marathon, were willing to sacrifice their own city – that was the Athenians again – to chance all on a naval battle and then, together with the Spartans and other allies, finally crush the Persian army at Plataea.
Unfortunately once turned on, this attitude proved impossible to turn off. Turning from the Persians they turned on one another, again.
Enough! I could go on and on with what I think about these bigoted, jingoist, misogynist, slave driving, greedy, pederasts but I won't.
Thucydides is a fine writer, even in translation. He is a somewhat bloodless, very seldom is the reader witness to the suffering and bloodshed brought about by the conflict. He has a good eye for drama though and generally handles his material well. His technique of cutting from one scene to another is nearly cinematic. I have passed many happy hours with maps and Wikipedia following the story.
I read Mr Benjamin Jowett’s scholarly translation (as it is blurbed in this edition) parallel with the Swedish translation by Sture Linnér. Mr Linnér's text is at least as readable and the Swedish edition also provides copious notes, references and maps.
So it begins: 431 BCE.
"...The movement of events is often as wayward and incomprehensible as the course of human thought; and this is why we ascribe to chance whatever belies our calculation..." says Pericles, voting for war...
"...you are not really going to war for a trifle. For in the seeming trifle is involved the trial and confirmation of your whole purpose. If you yield to them in a small matter, they will think that you are afraid, and will immediately dictate some more oppressive condition; but if you are firm, you will prove to them that they must treat you as their equals..." As was later proved, again, prior to the Second World War, when "appeasing" the Nazis.
"...On neither side were there any mean thoughts; they were both full of enthusiasm: and no wonder, for all men are energetic when they are making a beginning. At that time the youth of Peloponnesus and the youth of Athens were numerous; they had never seen war, and were therefore very willing to take up arms..." They had assuredly heard a good deal about war from the older generation.
"...The feeling of mankind was strongly on the side of the Lacedaemonians; for they professed to be the liberators of Hellas..." This was a new idea to me who was taught to idealize the democratic Athens. And learning that the Delian league was in fact the Athenian Empire was a bit of shock; nor were they kind masters.
"...the general indignation against the Athenians was intense; some were longing to be delivered from them, others fearful of falling under their sway..."
"In the same summer the Athenians expelled the Aeginetans and their families from Aegina, alleging that they had been the main cause of the war. The island lies close to Peloponnesus, and they thought it safer to send thither settlers of their own, an intention which they shortly afterwards carried out..." As an example.
"...in the afternoon, there was an eclipse of the sun..." According to Mr Linnér this was August the 3rd, 431 BCE – at 5:22 P.M. in Athens. Fun fact.
As if starting a war against formidable opponents was not enough, Athens suffered from a plague: "...Hagnon returned with his fleet to Athens, having lost by the plague out of four thousand hoplites a thousand and fifty men in about forty days..." This was still only a mortality rate of 25%. In Athens itself the figure was apparently 40%. Somewhat more virulent than Covid 19.
"...Meet your enemies therefore not only with spirit but with disdain. A coward or a fortunate fool may brag and vaunt, but he only is capable of disdain whose conviction that he is stronger than his enemy rests, like our own, on grounds of reason..." says Pericles.
Mr Linnér translates: "Not only courage but a sense of superiority should inspire you when you go against the enemy... I do not mean self-exaltation – that is for the narrow-minded who is lucky, or for the coward." s. 162 (from the Swedish)
"...after his death, his foresight was even better appreciated than during his life. For he had told the Athenians that if they would be patient and would attend to their navy, and not seek to enlarge their dominion while the war was going on, nor imperil the existence of the city, they would be victorious; but they did all that he told them not to do..." Thucydides' praise for Pericles, who died of the plague in September 429 BCE; the second year of the war.
"About the rising of Arcturus all was completed." This was when calendars were not really viable, every city having its own. According to Mr Linnér this was about September 20, 429 BCE.
A true politician, Cleon, the demagogue, prefers a dumb electorate: "Dullness and modesty are a more useful combination than cleverness and license; and the more simple sort generally make better citizens than the more astute..."
In Corfu, revolution broke out between the oligarichic party wanting to revolt from Athens, and the democratic party which did not: "...everything, and more than everything, that commonly happens in revolutions, happened then. The father slew the son, and the suppliants were torn from the temples and slain near them; some of them were even walled up in the temple of Dionysus, and there perished. To such extremes of cruelty did revolution go; and this seemed to be the worst of revolutions, because it was the first...
In peace and prosperity both states and individuals are actuated by higher motives, because they do not fall under the dominion of imperious necessities; but war, which takes away the comfortable provision of daily life, is a hard master and tends to assimilate men’s characters to their conditions...
The meaning of words had no longer the same relation to things, but was changed by them as they thought proper. Reckless daring was held to be loyal courage; prudent delay was the excuse of a coward; moderation was the disguise of unmanly weakness; to know everything was to do nothing. Frantic energy was the true quality of a man..."
"...They were also glad of a pretext for sending out of the way some of the Helots, fearing that they would take the opportunity of rising afforded by the occupation of Pylos. Most of the Lacedaemonian institutions were specially intended to secure them against this source of danger..."
The Spartan feared their slaves; who being trained as warriors, probably had good reason. This was the beginning the expeditions of Brasidas, which would bring him everlasting fame.
According to Mr Linnér the Athenians had never had cause to fear a slave rebellion....
"...at a later period of the war, after the Sicilian expedition, the honesty and ability of Brasidas which some had experienced, and of which others had heard the fame, mainly attracted the Athenian allies to the Lacedaemonians. For he was the first Spartan who had gone out to them, and he proved himself to be in every way a good man...
Athenians feared that more of their allies would revolt. For Brasidas in all his actions showed himself reasonable, and whenever he made a speech lost no opportunity of declaring that he was sent to emancipate Hellas. The cities which were subject to Athens, when they heard of the taking of Amphipolis and of his promises and of his gentleness, were more impatient than ever to rise..."
Several Chalkidikian cities revolted (Chalkidiki is the trident formed peninsula in eastern Greece):
"...they had under-estimated the Athenian power, which afterwards proved its greatness and the magnitude of their mistake; they judged rather by their own illusive wishes than by the safe rule of prudence. For such is the manner of men; what they like is always seen by them in the light of unreflecting hope, what they dislike they peremptorily set aside by an arbitrary conclusion.
Wise words.
Cleon is sent to the Chalcidades
"...Cleon did nothing for a time, but he was soon compelled to make the movement which Brasidas expected. For the soldiers were disgusted at their inaction, and drew comparisons between the generals; what skill and enterprise might be expected on the one side, and what ignorance and cowardice on the other..."
Linnér writes: "The soldiers were dissatisfied with being inactive. They thought of Cleon's ignorance and cowardice and compared it to the experience and boldness they would encounter..."
"...Brasidas and Cleon, who had been the two greatest enemies of peace, the one because the war brought him success and reputation, and the other because he fancied that in quiet times his rogueries would be more transparent and his slanders less credible, had fallen in the battle..."
One was mortally wounded while leading his troops, the other was killed while running away. Guess who died how? Thucycides really disliked Cleon.
"...This treaty was concluded at the end of winter, just at the beginning of spring, immediately after the city Dionysia..." i.e. March 421 BCE. This was the 50-year peace of Nicias - which lasted 6 years, during which time both Athens and Sparta and their allies were continually fighting although not one another.
Thucydides presents himself as he begins recording the next phase of the war. (V, 26)
"...For twenty years I was banished from my country after I held the command at Amphipolis, and associating with both sides, with the Peloponnesians quite as much as with the Athenians, because of my exile, I was thus enabled to watch quietly the course of events..."
Linnér wrties: "I saw what was happening in both camps, especially – because of my exile – in the Peloponnesian and so undisturbed could get to know the conditions better..."
Persuaded by Brasidas, Scioné revolted from Athens in 421 BCE.
"During the same summer, and about this time, the Athenians took Scionè which they were blockading, put to death all the grown-up men, and enslaved the women and children; they then gave possession of the land to the Plataeans..." (10%)
The Plataeans were Athens only ally at the battle of Marathon. During the present war they remained true to Athens but were abandoned to their fate; finally defeated by the Thebans after a long siege, all the men were killed. The women and children had previously been sent to Athens. The Thebans then destroyed Plataea. The new inhabitants of Scioné are apparently the Plataean refugees who escaped destruction. The Thebans have little to recommend them, allies of Xerxes in the Persian wars they became allies of the Peloponnesians for expediency.
"So the Melians were induced to surrender at discretion..." which is a euphemism according to Mr Linnér: "ge sig åt athenarna på nåd och onåd" i.e. "give themselves to the Athenians unconditionally..."
Mr Jowett writes: "Somewhat later the populace of Thespiae made an attack upon the government, but the attempt did not succeed; for the Thebans came to the rescue..." Mr Linnér writes: "A little later that summer, the Democrats in Thespiai tried to overthrow the government but in vain..."
Mr Jowett: "our servants, since we have been reduced to an equality with the enemy, desert us..."
Mr Linnér writes "our slaves".
"...that in the seventeenth year from the first invasion [of Attica], after so exhausting a struggle, the Athenians should have been strong enough and bold enough to go to Sicily at all, and to plunge into a fresh war as great as that in which they were already engaged — how contrary was all this to the expectation of mankind!" Thucycides was proud of his home city despite everything.
"...But the Athenians themselves, and such of their allies as happened to be with them, went down to Piraeus upon a day appointed at daybreak, and began to man the ships for putting out to sea. With them also went down the whole population, one may say, of the city, both citizens and foreigners; the inhabitants of the country each escorting those that belonged to them, their friends, their relatives, or their sons, with hope and lamentation upon their way, as they thought of the conquests which they hoped to make, or of the friends whom they might never see again, considering the long voyage which they were going to make from their country..."
When the Sicilian expedition has failed before the walls of Syracuse, the Athenians plan to retreat:
"...maintaining such secrecy as they could, they gave orders for the departure of the expedition; the men were to prepare themselves against a given signal. The preparations were made and they were on the point of sailing, when the moon, being just then at the full, was eclipsed. The mass of the army was greatly moved, and called upon the generals to remain. Nicias himself, who was too much under the influence of divination and such like, refused even to discuss the question of their removal until they had remained thrice nine days, as the soothsayers prescribed. This was the reason why the departure of the Athenians was finally delayed..." which resulted in their complete destruction.
A marsh near Syracuse is named Lysimelea – a melodious word.
Both sides desperate, the sea battle of triremes in the harbour of Syracuse: "No previous engagement had been so fierce and obstinate...
At length the Syracusans and their allies, after a protracted struggle, put the Athenians to flight, and triumphantly bearing down upon them, and encouraging one another with loud cries and exhortations, drove them to land.
"Demosthenes came to Nicias and proposed that they should once more man their remaining vessels and endeavour to force the passage at daybreak, saying that they had more ships fit for service than the enemy. For the Athenian fleet still numbered sixty, but the enemy had less than fifty. Nicias approved of his proposal..."
But the sailors had lost their courage and refused to man the ships.
"They remembered from what pride and splendour they had fallen into their present low estate. Never had an Hellenic army experienced such a reverse. They had come intending to enslave others, and they were going away in fear that they would be themselves enslaved..." (15%)
Nicias exhorting the troops: "you Athenians will again rear aloft the fallen greatness of Athens. For men, and not walls or ships in which are no men, constitute a state..."
Mr Linnér: "Det är män som utgör staden, inte murar eller skepp..." i.e. "It is men who make up the city, not walls or ships.
Demosthenes' portion of the retreating army: "...no one was to suffer death, either from violence or from imprisonment, or from want of the bare means of life. So they all surrendered..."
6,000 surrendered, of >20,000 who began the retreat.
"At last, when the dead bodies were lying in heaps upon one another in the water and the army was utterly undone, some perishing in the river, and any who escaped being cut off by the cavalry, Nicias surrendered [his portion of the army] to Gylippus..." 18 September 413 BCE.
Both Demosthenes and Nicias were executed – to the dismay of Gylippus, the Spartan – who wanted to take them back to Lacedaemon. Of Nicias Thucydides writes: "he suffered death. No one of the Hellenes in my time was less deserving of so miserable an end; for he lived in the practice of every virtue..." A good man; but not that good of a commander.
According to Mr Jowett the Athenian prisoners were given: "a pint of water and a pint of food a day..." Mr Linnér: "a quarter of a litre of water and half a portion of flour a day..." which is but half of that provided in Mr Jowett's translation.
In Athens, following the disaster at Syracuse: "After the manner of a democracy, they were very amenable to discipline while their fright lasted..." This fact has been noted by many politicians who have then contrived to frighten the populace.
Somehow the Athenians battle on. Alcibiades is a curious figure. A student of Socrates he is one of the leaders of the expedition to Sicily. But he is recalled and then exiled from Athens for his part in vandalizing the "herma" statues of Hermes. He then works actively with the Peloponnesians against the Athenians, and later also with the Persian Satrap in Ionia, where he "...also advised Tissaphernes not to be in a hurry about putting an end to the war..."
Later talking to the Athenians in Samos: "he begged to remember him to all good men and true, and to let them know that he would be glad to return to his country and cast in his lot with them. He would at the same time make Tissaphernes their friend; but they must establish an oligarchy, and abolish the villainous democracy which had driven him out..." (16%)
A conspiracy plans a revolution in Athens. Not everyone approves of oligarchy: "And as for the so-called nobility, the allies thought that they would be quite as troublesome as the people; they were the persons who suggested crimes to the popular mind; who provided the means for their execution; and who reaped the fruits themselves..." So says Phrynichus the general. Later, in self-interest, he supported the revolution.
"...an easy thing it certainly was not, about one hundred years after the fall of the tyrants, to destroy the liberties of the Athenians, who not only were a free, but during more than one half of this time had been an imperial people..."
"...on this as on so many other occasions the Lacedaemonians proved themselves to be the most convenient enemies whom the Athenians could possibly have had. For the two peoples were of very different tempers; the one quick, the other slow; the one adventurous, the other timorous; and the Lacedaemonian character was of great service to the Athenians..."
"He [Tissaphernes] first went to Ephesus, and there offered sacrifice to Artemis...." is the famous last fragment that Thucydides wrote, as if he died with pen in hand.
I will probably read Xenophon's Hellenica just to see how it goes!
which is a lot of fun. I was hesitant to begin with as the idea of reading about Greeks killing Greeks seemed far less interesting than reading about Greeks killing Persians. But truth be told, if they had not been so belligerent, always fighting with their neighbours and anyone else they met – the botched Athenian expedition to Egypt is often forgotten – they would not have been the highly trained fighting force which defeated the Persians at Marathon, were willing to sacrifice their own city – that was the Athenians again – to chance all on a naval battle and then, together with the Spartans and other allies, finally crush the Persian army at Plataea.
Unfortunately once turned on, this attitude proved impossible to turn off. Turning from the Persians they turned on one another, again.
Enough! I could go on and on with what I think about these bigoted, jingoist, misogynist, slave driving, greedy, pederasts but I won't.
Thucydides is a fine writer, even in translation. He is a somewhat bloodless, very seldom is the reader witness to the suffering and bloodshed brought about by the conflict. He has a good eye for drama though and generally handles his material well. His technique of cutting from one scene to another is nearly cinematic. I have passed many happy hours with maps and Wikipedia following the story.
I read Mr Benjamin Jowett’s scholarly translation (as it is blurbed in this edition) parallel with the Swedish translation by Sture Linnér. Mr Linnér's text is at least as readable and the Swedish edition also provides copious notes, references and maps.
So it begins: 431 BCE.
"...The movement of events is often as wayward and incomprehensible as the course of human thought; and this is why we ascribe to chance whatever belies our calculation..." says Pericles, voting for war...
"...you are not really going to war for a trifle. For in the seeming trifle is involved the trial and confirmation of your whole purpose. If you yield to them in a small matter, they will think that you are afraid, and will immediately dictate some more oppressive condition; but if you are firm, you will prove to them that they must treat you as their equals..." As was later proved, again, prior to the Second World War, when "appeasing" the Nazis.
"...On neither side were there any mean thoughts; they were both full of enthusiasm: and no wonder, for all men are energetic when they are making a beginning. At that time the youth of Peloponnesus and the youth of Athens were numerous; they had never seen war, and were therefore very willing to take up arms..." They had assuredly heard a good deal about war from the older generation.
"...The feeling of mankind was strongly on the side of the Lacedaemonians; for they professed to be the liberators of Hellas..." This was a new idea to me who was taught to idealize the democratic Athens. And learning that the Delian league was in fact the Athenian Empire was a bit of shock; nor were they kind masters.
"...the general indignation against the Athenians was intense; some were longing to be delivered from them, others fearful of falling under their sway..."
"In the same summer the Athenians expelled the Aeginetans and their families from Aegina, alleging that they had been the main cause of the war. The island lies close to Peloponnesus, and they thought it safer to send thither settlers of their own, an intention which they shortly afterwards carried out..." As an example.
"...in the afternoon, there was an eclipse of the sun..." According to Mr Linnér this was August the 3rd, 431 BCE – at 5:22 P.M. in Athens. Fun fact.
As if starting a war against formidable opponents was not enough, Athens suffered from a plague: "...Hagnon returned with his fleet to Athens, having lost by the plague out of four thousand hoplites a thousand and fifty men in about forty days..." This was still only a mortality rate of 25%. In Athens itself the figure was apparently 40%. Somewhat more virulent than Covid 19.
"...Meet your enemies therefore not only with spirit but with disdain. A coward or a fortunate fool may brag and vaunt, but he only is capable of disdain whose conviction that he is stronger than his enemy rests, like our own, on grounds of reason..." says Pericles.
Mr Linnér translates: "Not only courage but a sense of superiority should inspire you when you go against the enemy... I do not mean self-exaltation – that is for the narrow-minded who is lucky, or for the coward." s. 162 (from the Swedish)
"...after his death, his foresight was even better appreciated than during his life. For he had told the Athenians that if they would be patient and would attend to their navy, and not seek to enlarge their dominion while the war was going on, nor imperil the existence of the city, they would be victorious; but they did all that he told them not to do..." Thucydides' praise for Pericles, who died of the plague in September 429 BCE; the second year of the war.
"About the rising of Arcturus all was completed." This was when calendars were not really viable, every city having its own. According to Mr Linnér this was about September 20, 429 BCE.
A true politician, Cleon, the demagogue, prefers a dumb electorate: "Dullness and modesty are a more useful combination than cleverness and license; and the more simple sort generally make better citizens than the more astute..."
In Corfu, revolution broke out between the oligarichic party wanting to revolt from Athens, and the democratic party which did not: "...everything, and more than everything, that commonly happens in revolutions, happened then. The father slew the son, and the suppliants were torn from the temples and slain near them; some of them were even walled up in the temple of Dionysus, and there perished. To such extremes of cruelty did revolution go; and this seemed to be the worst of revolutions, because it was the first...
In peace and prosperity both states and individuals are actuated by higher motives, because they do not fall under the dominion of imperious necessities; but war, which takes away the comfortable provision of daily life, is a hard master and tends to assimilate men’s characters to their conditions...
The meaning of words had no longer the same relation to things, but was changed by them as they thought proper. Reckless daring was held to be loyal courage; prudent delay was the excuse of a coward; moderation was the disguise of unmanly weakness; to know everything was to do nothing. Frantic energy was the true quality of a man..."
"...They were also glad of a pretext for sending out of the way some of the Helots, fearing that they would take the opportunity of rising afforded by the occupation of Pylos. Most of the Lacedaemonian institutions were specially intended to secure them against this source of danger..."
The Spartan feared their slaves; who being trained as warriors, probably had good reason. This was the beginning the expeditions of Brasidas, which would bring him everlasting fame.
According to Mr Linnér the Athenians had never had cause to fear a slave rebellion....
"...at a later period of the war, after the Sicilian expedition, the honesty and ability of Brasidas which some had experienced, and of which others had heard the fame, mainly attracted the Athenian allies to the Lacedaemonians. For he was the first Spartan who had gone out to them, and he proved himself to be in every way a good man...
Athenians feared that more of their allies would revolt. For Brasidas in all his actions showed himself reasonable, and whenever he made a speech lost no opportunity of declaring that he was sent to emancipate Hellas. The cities which were subject to Athens, when they heard of the taking of Amphipolis and of his promises and of his gentleness, were more impatient than ever to rise..."
Several Chalkidikian cities revolted (Chalkidiki is the trident formed peninsula in eastern Greece):
"...they had under-estimated the Athenian power, which afterwards proved its greatness and the magnitude of their mistake; they judged rather by their own illusive wishes than by the safe rule of prudence. For such is the manner of men; what they like is always seen by them in the light of unreflecting hope, what they dislike they peremptorily set aside by an arbitrary conclusion.
Wise words.
Cleon is sent to the Chalcidades
"...Cleon did nothing for a time, but he was soon compelled to make the movement which Brasidas expected. For the soldiers were disgusted at their inaction, and drew comparisons between the generals; what skill and enterprise might be expected on the one side, and what ignorance and cowardice on the other..."
Linnér writes: "The soldiers were dissatisfied with being inactive. They thought of Cleon's ignorance and cowardice and compared it to the experience and boldness they would encounter..."
"...Brasidas and Cleon, who had been the two greatest enemies of peace, the one because the war brought him success and reputation, and the other because he fancied that in quiet times his rogueries would be more transparent and his slanders less credible, had fallen in the battle..."
One was mortally wounded while leading his troops, the other was killed while running away. Guess who died how? Thucycides really disliked Cleon.
"...This treaty was concluded at the end of winter, just at the beginning of spring, immediately after the city Dionysia..." i.e. March 421 BCE. This was the 50-year peace of Nicias - which lasted 6 years, during which time both Athens and Sparta and their allies were continually fighting although not one another.
Thucydides presents himself as he begins recording the next phase of the war. (V, 26)
"...For twenty years I was banished from my country after I held the command at Amphipolis, and associating with both sides, with the Peloponnesians quite as much as with the Athenians, because of my exile, I was thus enabled to watch quietly the course of events..."
Linnér wrties: "I saw what was happening in both camps, especially – because of my exile – in the Peloponnesian and so undisturbed could get to know the conditions better..."
Persuaded by Brasidas, Scioné revolted from Athens in 421 BCE.
"During the same summer, and about this time, the Athenians took Scionè which they were blockading, put to death all the grown-up men, and enslaved the women and children; they then gave possession of the land to the Plataeans..." (10%)
The Plataeans were Athens only ally at the battle of Marathon. During the present war they remained true to Athens but were abandoned to their fate; finally defeated by the Thebans after a long siege, all the men were killed. The women and children had previously been sent to Athens. The Thebans then destroyed Plataea. The new inhabitants of Scioné are apparently the Plataean refugees who escaped destruction. The Thebans have little to recommend them, allies of Xerxes in the Persian wars they became allies of the Peloponnesians for expediency.
"So the Melians were induced to surrender at discretion..." which is a euphemism according to Mr Linnér: "ge sig åt athenarna på nåd och onåd" i.e. "give themselves to the Athenians unconditionally..."
Mr Jowett writes: "Somewhat later the populace of Thespiae made an attack upon the government, but the attempt did not succeed; for the Thebans came to the rescue..." Mr Linnér writes: "A little later that summer, the Democrats in Thespiai tried to overthrow the government but in vain..."
Mr Jowett: "our servants, since we have been reduced to an equality with the enemy, desert us..."
Mr Linnér writes "our slaves".
"...that in the seventeenth year from the first invasion [of Attica], after so exhausting a struggle, the Athenians should have been strong enough and bold enough to go to Sicily at all, and to plunge into a fresh war as great as that in which they were already engaged — how contrary was all this to the expectation of mankind!" Thucycides was proud of his home city despite everything.
"...But the Athenians themselves, and such of their allies as happened to be with them, went down to Piraeus upon a day appointed at daybreak, and began to man the ships for putting out to sea. With them also went down the whole population, one may say, of the city, both citizens and foreigners; the inhabitants of the country each escorting those that belonged to them, their friends, their relatives, or their sons, with hope and lamentation upon their way, as they thought of the conquests which they hoped to make, or of the friends whom they might never see again, considering the long voyage which they were going to make from their country..."
When the Sicilian expedition has failed before the walls of Syracuse, the Athenians plan to retreat:
"...maintaining such secrecy as they could, they gave orders for the departure of the expedition; the men were to prepare themselves against a given signal. The preparations were made and they were on the point of sailing, when the moon, being just then at the full, was eclipsed. The mass of the army was greatly moved, and called upon the generals to remain. Nicias himself, who was too much under the influence of divination and such like, refused even to discuss the question of their removal until they had remained thrice nine days, as the soothsayers prescribed. This was the reason why the departure of the Athenians was finally delayed..." which resulted in their complete destruction.
A marsh near Syracuse is named Lysimelea – a melodious word.
Both sides desperate, the sea battle of triremes in the harbour of Syracuse: "No previous engagement had been so fierce and obstinate...
At length the Syracusans and their allies, after a protracted struggle, put the Athenians to flight, and triumphantly bearing down upon them, and encouraging one another with loud cries and exhortations, drove them to land.
"Demosthenes came to Nicias and proposed that they should once more man their remaining vessels and endeavour to force the passage at daybreak, saying that they had more ships fit for service than the enemy. For the Athenian fleet still numbered sixty, but the enemy had less than fifty. Nicias approved of his proposal..."
But the sailors had lost their courage and refused to man the ships.
"They remembered from what pride and splendour they had fallen into their present low estate. Never had an Hellenic army experienced such a reverse. They had come intending to enslave others, and they were going away in fear that they would be themselves enslaved..." (15%)
Nicias exhorting the troops: "you Athenians will again rear aloft the fallen greatness of Athens. For men, and not walls or ships in which are no men, constitute a state..."
Mr Linnér: "Det är män som utgör staden, inte murar eller skepp..." i.e. "It is men who make up the city, not walls or ships.
Demosthenes' portion of the retreating army: "...no one was to suffer death, either from violence or from imprisonment, or from want of the bare means of life. So they all surrendered..."
6,000 surrendered, of >20,000 who began the retreat.
"At last, when the dead bodies were lying in heaps upon one another in the water and the army was utterly undone, some perishing in the river, and any who escaped being cut off by the cavalry, Nicias surrendered [his portion of the army] to Gylippus..." 18 September 413 BCE.
Both Demosthenes and Nicias were executed – to the dismay of Gylippus, the Spartan – who wanted to take them back to Lacedaemon. Of Nicias Thucydides writes: "he suffered death. No one of the Hellenes in my time was less deserving of so miserable an end; for he lived in the practice of every virtue..." A good man; but not that good of a commander.
According to Mr Jowett the Athenian prisoners were given: "a pint of water and a pint of food a day..." Mr Linnér: "a quarter of a litre of water and half a portion of flour a day..." which is but half of that provided in Mr Jowett's translation.
In Athens, following the disaster at Syracuse: "After the manner of a democracy, they were very amenable to discipline while their fright lasted..." This fact has been noted by many politicians who have then contrived to frighten the populace.
Somehow the Athenians battle on. Alcibiades is a curious figure. A student of Socrates he is one of the leaders of the expedition to Sicily. But he is recalled and then exiled from Athens for his part in vandalizing the "herma" statues of Hermes. He then works actively with the Peloponnesians against the Athenians, and later also with the Persian Satrap in Ionia, where he "...also advised Tissaphernes not to be in a hurry about putting an end to the war..."
Later talking to the Athenians in Samos: "he begged to remember him to all good men and true, and to let them know that he would be glad to return to his country and cast in his lot with them. He would at the same time make Tissaphernes their friend; but they must establish an oligarchy, and abolish the villainous democracy which had driven him out..." (16%)
A conspiracy plans a revolution in Athens. Not everyone approves of oligarchy: "And as for the so-called nobility, the allies thought that they would be quite as troublesome as the people; they were the persons who suggested crimes to the popular mind; who provided the means for their execution; and who reaped the fruits themselves..." So says Phrynichus the general. Later, in self-interest, he supported the revolution.
"...an easy thing it certainly was not, about one hundred years after the fall of the tyrants, to destroy the liberties of the Athenians, who not only were a free, but during more than one half of this time had been an imperial people..."
"...on this as on so many other occasions the Lacedaemonians proved themselves to be the most convenient enemies whom the Athenians could possibly have had. For the two peoples were of very different tempers; the one quick, the other slow; the one adventurous, the other timorous; and the Lacedaemonian character was of great service to the Athenians..."
"He [Tissaphernes] first went to Ephesus, and there offered sacrifice to Artemis...." is the famous last fragment that Thucydides wrote, as if he died with pen in hand.
I will probably read Xenophon's Hellenica just to see how it goes!
August 2, 2019
A master in historiography
Beyond the description of the many stages of the protracted war between Athens and Sparta, the work is a master class on how to write history, the need to stay trustworthy, glued to the facts, with this brilliant resource of transcribing the actual words of the protagonists. In short, it is the description of a mortal struggle between democracy and oligarchy: sometimes oligarchy wins, and democracy disappears, but only temporary; in the end, the aspiration of Liberty will prevail.
Beyond the description of the many stages of the protracted war between Athens and Sparta, the work is a master class on how to write history, the need to stay trustworthy, glued to the facts, with this brilliant resource of transcribing the actual words of the protagonists. In short, it is the description of a mortal struggle between democracy and oligarchy: sometimes oligarchy wins, and democracy disappears, but only temporary; in the end, the aspiration of Liberty will prevail.
May 27, 2020
This review only applies to The Peloponnesian War.
Except for some clarity edits to help it’s readability (one, its excessive use of pronouns), this is a clear, modern, and accessible translation by Benjamin Jowett.
Except for some clarity edits to help it’s readability (one, its excessive use of pronouns), this is a clear, modern, and accessible translation by Benjamin Jowett.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews