History Of The Peloponnesian War

The Peloponnesian War was fought amongst the Greek city-states of Athens and Sparta when Greek civilisation was shrouded under a cloak of destruction and calamity for 27 long years. The account of this legendary war was recorded in the History Of The Peloponnesian War (Penguin Classics) by Athenian historian Thucydides. The war that took place 400 years before the birth of Christ was a result of the conflicts amongst the two Greek nations over the growing arrogance of the Athenian state in ancient Greece. The power with which Athens wished to rule trade shipping and other economical realms of the Kingdom was alarming for the Spartans and they decided to stand up against them.In the book Thucydides gives an unbiased political view of the war although he himself was the admiral general of Athens during the events. His work is regarded as one of the more truthful accounts of the Peloponnesian war widely read and accepted by historians. The basis of the History Of The Peloponnesian War was the reasons and causes behind the war and the events that followed. The subsequent end of Athens and establishment of Sparta as the strongest empire in Greece have been depicted in the words of Thucydides through speeches recollections and personal views.The 1st edition of History Of The Peloponnesian War (Penguin Classics) by Thucydides was published by Penguin UK in 2000. It is available in paperback format.Key FeaturesThis edition of the History Of The Peloponnesian War is the first edition published by Penguin.The Penguin UK edition was translated by Rex Warner who is known to have translated several other titles from ancient Greek modern Greek and Latin literature.|THUCYDIDES was born probably about 460BC. He took a small part in the Peloponnesian War when it broke out in 431BC. 'The Peoloponnesian War' is the only surviving source for much of the period that he describes. Some of the chronological inconsistencies have been the cause of controversy among scholars for centuries. Rex Warner 1905-1986 was a classical scholar of Wadham College Oxford. M. I. Finley was a lecturer in Classics and then Professor of Ancient History at Cambridge. He died in 1986|'With icy remorselessness it puts paid to any notion that the horrors of modern history might be an aberration - for it tells of universal war of terrorism revolution and genocide' Tom HollandThe long life-and-death struggle between Athens and Sparta plunged the ancient Greek world into decades of war. Thucydides was an Athenian and achieved the rank of general in the earlier stages of the war and in this detailed first-hand contemporary account he writes as both a soldier and a historian. He applies a passion for accuracy and a contempt for myth and romance in compiling a factual record of a ruinous conflict that would eventually destroy the Athenian empire.Translated by Rex Warner with an introduction and notes by M. I. Finley