The history of the peloponnesian war by thucydides translated by richard crawley the first book the state of greece from the earliest times to the commencement of the peloponnesian war thucydides, an athenian, wrote the history of the war between the. Thucydides called his account of two decades of war between athens and sparta a possession for all time, and indeed it is the first and still the most famous work in the western historical tradition. Feel free to use them to organize your thoughts as you move through your reading. Thucydides notes that to fit in with the change of events, words, too, had to change their usual meaning thucydides, 3. In the following summer, when the corn was in full ear, the.
Dear fellow thucydides readers, here are my notes in outline form for book 3. Thucydides, history of the peloponnesian war, the third. Revolt of mytilene, 4287 bc chapters 5 phormio commands a fleet that raids the peloponnese. Thucydides, history of the peloponnesian war, book iii. His work was the first recorded political and moral analysis of a nations. Outline of thucydides book 3 university of vermont. A wikipedia article about this author is available thucydides, contrib the english works of thomas hobbes of malmesbury 11 volumes. This division of thucydides entails some reliance on the idea that the historian progressed towards the abilities he displays in book eight.
As you become more familiar with the names of people, places and things, the points thucydides makes will also become clearer. Thucydides books list of books by author thucydides. Thucydides does not jump around too much in this book from theater to theater. Certainly thucydides search for an exact knowledge of the. History of the peloponnesian war war college series. Analysis of the history of the peloponnesian war, by.
Thucydides is one of the first western historians to employ a strict standard of chronology, recording events by year, with each year consisting of the summer campaign season and a less active winter. Thucydides is considered to be one of the great fathers of western history, thus making his methodology the subject of much analysis in area of historiography. Thucydides book vi, chapters 3053 and 60105 end the first part of the sicilian expedition edited for beginners in greek, london, j. As usual the athenians do not provide massed resistance. Now in time of peace they could have had no pretence nor would have been so forward to call them in. The history of the peloponnesian war book 3 chapter 9 summary. Thucydides history of the peloponnesian war is divided into eight books that together cover twentyone of the twentyseven years of. Mytilene was the principal city of the island of lesbos, located in the northeastern aegean sea and close to asia minor presentday turkey. History of the peloponnesian warbook 3 wikisource, the. Try not to be put off by the amount of information contained in book i at first. Peloponnesian invasion of attica 428 bce 26 revolt of mytilene athenian expedition to lesbos 7 athenian expedition to acarnania. Review history of the peloponnesian war einternational relations.
Thucydides, greatest of ancient greek historians and author of the history of the peloponnesian war, which recounts the struggle between athens and sparta in the 5th century bc. Thucydides nonfiction approach to history and his love of exact facts have given him this name. History of the peloponnesian warbook 3 wikisource, the free. In the summer of 428 bc, the peloponnesian army once again invades attica. The history of the peloponnesian war book 3 chapter 9. Thus the winter ended, and with it ended the fifth year of this war, of which thucydides was the historian. This idea is not new, as hawthorn explains, citing, for instance macleod and dewald. Thucydides book 1 study guide questions reading odyssey. Funeral oration greece al affiliation thucydides is a famous speech written by an athenian leader, pericles, in the year 399 bc terney, 2012. For all the problems thucydidess work poses for the contemporary reader the dryness of the prose, the authors own admission that the speeches are unlikely to be accurate reporting, his inability to transcend the particular for the universal it is beyond churlish to criticise the man who may be seen as the first real historian, the first to consider history as a product of human. Headlines from the peloponnesian war book 3 reading odyssey. This 70page guide for history of the peloponnesian war by thucydides includes. Chapter xviii seventeenth year of the war the sicilian campaign affair of the hermae departure of the expedition the same winter the athenians resolved to sail again to sicily, with a greater armament than that under laches and eurymedon, and, if possible, to conquer the island. Considered essential reading for generals, statesmen, and liberally educated citizens for more than 2,000 years, the peloponnesian war is a mine of military, moral, political, and.
Congress of the peloponnesian confederacy at lacedaemon. For afterwards all greece, as a man may say, was in commotion. One major theme can be found in book 2, chapter 53, where thucydides describes the situation in athens after it had been stricken with plague during the peloponnesian war. In book iii, in the middle of a horrifying description of the revolution or. History of the peloponnesian warbook 4 wikisource, the. In the following summer, when the corn was in full ear, the peloponnesians and their allies, 1 under the command of archidamus, the son of zeuxidamus, the lacedaemonian 2 king, invaded attica, and encamping wasted the country.
Book 3 concerns events of the fourth through sixth years of the war. Moving beyond other studies by its focus on the readers role in giving meaning to the text, it reveals thucydides use of objectivity not so much as a standard for the proper presentation of his. This fullscale sequential reading of thucydides history of the peloponnesian war will be invaluable to the specialist and also to those in search of an introduction and companion to the histories. Mytilene, a city on the aegean island of lesbos, revolts from athens, which sends a fleet to subdue the revolt. Chapter summary for thucydidess the history of the peloponnesian war, book 3 chapter 9 summary. Doubtless for him world war ii was the most obvious analogue. In his book history, thucydides relates the facts of the peloponnesian war with as much fact and truth as possible, unlike his contemporaries who used second hand word of mouth and myths to relate their details. In thucydides, the history of the peloponnesian war, there are many themes that are illustrated throughout various passages. Pericles funeral oration from thucydides by paul halsall will begin with the statement that pericles funeral oration is the aforementioned athenian. The actual narration of the peloponnesian war begins with book ii.