An Athenian general of the fifth century B.C. chronicles the disastrous 27-year conflict between Athens and Sparta. Thucydides traces the conflict's roots and provides detailed, knowledgeable analyses of battles and the political atmosphere.

History of the Peloponnesian War

The Peloponnesian War, the epic struggle between Athens and Sparta, occupies a vital part in military history because of the enormous military and political changes it inspired. In this brilliant book, Sir Nigel Bagnall sets out to analyze and clarify the war, describing in compelling detail the events that led up to it. His meticulous attention to historical context offers a refreshing contrast to traditional accounts. The conflict lasted from 431 to 404 B.C., until the confederation led by Sparta finally conquered Athens and her allies. Bagnall dissects the complex relationship between the two states and closely studies their political conduct in the run-up to war, offering a riveting account of the strategy and tactics involved. He also outlines its innovations and lessons, which would have enormous military repercussions for future generations. These include the importance of having clear politico-strategic objectives, the interplay of maritime and land operations, and the problems of achieving cohesion in an alliance in which all the participants see themselves as fellow citizens. The Peloponnesian War is an important book that shines new light on an always relevant subject.

The Peloponnesian War

For three decades in the fifth century b.c. the ancient world was torn apart bya conflict that was as dramatic, divisive, and destructive as the world wars of the twentieth century: the Peloponnesian War. Donald Kagan, one of the world’s most respected classical, political, and military historians, here presents a new account of this vicious war of Greek against Greek, Athenian against Spartan. The Peloponnesian War is a magisterial work of history written for general readers, offering a fresh examination of a pivotal moment in Western civilization. With a lively, readable narrative that conveys a richly detailed portrait of a vanished world while honoring its timeless relevance, The Peloponnesian War is a chronicle of the rise and fall of a great empire and of a dark time whose lessons still resonate today.

The Peloponnesian War resonates with contemporary events like few other episodes in ancient history. Though a democracy, Athens warred with its neighbors for decades in a doomed bid to secure its Aegean and Mediterranean empire. The ambitious city-state's eventual reward was defeat and tyrannical rule, effectively ending Athens's Golden Age, which flourished during the war in the fifth century BC. Not coincidentally did Athens flourish economically, militarily, artistically, and philosophically during the fifth century BC. Empire created great wealth, which supported the then novel democratic government. Wealth also supported the arts and letters. This was the time of Socrates, Plato, Aristophanes, Perikles and Thucydides, figures whose works and musings on war and its effects are widely read to this day. Designed as an accessible introduction to this immensely important event, The Peloponnesian War offers readers and researchers an appealing mix of descriptive chapters, biographical sketches, and annotated primary documents. An overview of the war is presented, followed a presentation of Thucydides' account of the war's causes. A look at the intertwined, some would say poisoned, relation of democracy and empire is offered, as are chapters on how the war was represented in plays, statuary, and pottery. The ethics of war are delved into by detailing the life, teachings, and eventual death of Socrates. And, critically, a chapter is devoted to those who most often suffer the harmful consequence of war: women. A glossary of terms is present, as is an annotated timeline, maps, useful illustrations, an annotated bibliography, and a thorough index.

The first volume of Donald Kagan's acclaimed four-volume history of the Peloponnesian War offers a new evaluation of the origins and causes of the conflict, based on evidence produced by modern scholarship and on a careful reconsideration of the ancient texts. He focuses his study on the question: Was the war inevitable, or could it have been avoided? Kagan takes issue with Thucydides' view that the war was inevitable, that the rise of the Athenian Empire in a world with an existing rival power made a clash between the two a certainty. Asserting instead that the origin of the war "cannot, without serious distortion, be treated in isolation from the internal history of the states involved," Kagan traces the connections between domestic politics, constitutional organization, and foreign affairs. He further examines the evidence to see what decisions were made that led to war, at each point asking whether a different decision would have been possible.

The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War

Max sails to the land of the wild things, where he becomes their king.

Featuring full-color artwork and drawing upon an array of sources, this is the story of the clash between Athenian and Spartan hoplites during the Peloponnesian War.

Athenian Hoplite Vs Spartan Hoplite

One of our most provocative military historians, Victor Davis Hanson has given us painstakingly researched and pathbreaking accounts of wars ranging from classical antiquity to the twenty-first century. Now he juxtaposes an ancient conflict with our most urgent modern concerns to create his most engrossing work to date, A War Like No Other. Over the course of a generation, the Hellenic city-states of Athens and Sparta fought a bloody conflict that resulted in the collapse of Athens and the end of its golden age. Thucydides wrote the standard history of the Peloponnesian War, which has given readers throughout the ages a vivid and authoritative narrative. But Hanson offers readers something new: a complete chronological account that reflects the political background of the time, the strategic thinking of the combatants, the misery of battle in multifaceted theaters, and important insight into how these events echo in the present. Hanson compellingly portrays the ways Athens and Sparta fought on land and sea, in city and countryside, and details their employment of the full scope of conventional and nonconventional tactics, from sieges to targeted assassinations, torture, and terrorism. He also assesses the crucial roles played by warriors such as Pericles and Lysander, artists, among them Aristophanes, and thinkers including Sophocles and Plato. Hanson’s perceptive analysis of events and personalities raises many thought-provoking questions: Were Athens and Sparta like America and Russia, two superpowers battling to the death? Is the Peloponnesian War echoed in the endless, frustrating conflicts of Vietnam, Northern Ireland, and the current Middle East? Or was it more like America’s own Civil War, a brutal rift that rent the fabric of a glorious society, or even this century’s “red state—blue state” schism between liberals and conservatives, a cultural war that manifestly controls military policies? Hanson daringly brings the facts to life and unearths the often surprising ways in which the past informs the present. Brilliantly researched, dynamically written, A War Like No Other is like no other history of this important war.

A War Like No Other

It is a testament to the fascination of the subject that even today the events of the Peloponnesian War are studied for what they can teach about diplomacy, strategy and tactics. This book reveals the darker side of Classical Greek civilization. From the horrific effects of overcrowding and the plague on the population of Athens, to the vicious civil strife that often erupted in cities allied with Athens or Sparta, this volume offers vivid and at times disturbing insights into the impact of warfare on the people who are celebrated as the founders of Western civilization.

The Peloponnesian War 431–404 BC

Athens at the time of the Peloponnesian war was the arena for a dramatic battle between politics and religion in the hearts and minds of the people. Fear and Loathing in Ancient Athens, originally published in German but now available for the first time in an expanded and revised English edition, sheds new light on this dramatic period of history and offers a new approach to the study of Greek religion. The book explores an extraordinary range of events and topics: impiety charges and prosecutions; the horrors of the plague; the mutilation of hermai and the profanation of the mysteries; the controversy created by the adoption of new gods; the impressive architectural structures of the sculptor Phidias; the military conflicts of the Peloponnesian war; and the thoughts of the mysterious philosopher Socrates. Fear and Loathing in Ancient Athens will be an indispensible study for students and scholars studying Athenian religion and politics.

Fear and Loathing in Ancient Athens

This book, the second volume in Donald Kagan's tetralogy about the Peloponnesian War, is a provocative and tightly argued history of the first ten years of the war. Taking a chronological approach that allows him to present at each stage the choices that were open to both sides in the conflict, Kagan focuses on political, economic, diplomatic, and military developments. He evaluates the strategies used by both sides and reconsiders the roles played by several key individuals.

The Archidamian War

The History of the Peloponnesian War By Richard Crawley CHAPTER I 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 Peloponnesians and the Athenians, beginning at the moment that it broke out, and believing that it would be a great war and more worthy of relation than any that had preceded it. This belief was not without its grounds. The preparations of both the combatants were in every department in the last state of perfection; and he could see the rest of the Hellenic race taking sides in the quarrel; those who delayed doing so at once having it in contemplation. Indeed this was the greatest movement yet known in history, not only of the Hellenes, but of a large part of the barbarian world-I had almost said of mankind. For though the events of remote antiquity, and even those that more immediately preceded the war, could not from lapse of time be clearly ascertained, yet the evidences which an inquiry carried as far back as was practicable leads me to trust, all point to the conclusion that there was nothing on a great scale, either in war or in other matters. For instance, it is evident that the country now called Hellas had in ancient times no settled population; on the contrary, migrations were of frequent occurrence, the several tribes readily abandoning their homes under the pressure of superior numbers. Without commerce, without freedom of communication either by land or sea, cultivating no more of their territory than the exigencies of life required, destitute of capital, never planting their land (for they could not tell when an invader might not come and take it all away, and when he did come they had no walls to stop him), thinking that the necessities of daily sustenance could be supplied at one place as well as another, they cared little for shifting their habitation, and consequently neither built large cities nor attained to any other form of greatness. The richest soils were always most subject to this change of masters; such as the district now called Thessaly, Boeotia, most of the Peloponnese, Arcadia excepted, and the most fertile parts of the rest of Hellas. The goodness of the land favoured the aggrandizement of particular individuals, and thus created faction which proved a fertile source of ruin. It also invited invasion. Accordingly Attica, from the poverty of its soil enjoying from a very remote period freedom from faction, never changed its inhabitants. And here is no inconsiderable exemplification of my assertion that the migrations were the cause of there being no correspondent growth in other parts. The most powerful victims of war or faction from the rest of Hellas took refuge with the Athenians as a safe retreat; and at an early period, becoming naturalized, swelled the already large population of the city to such a height that Attica became at last too small to hold them, and they had to send out colonies to Ionia. We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic Library collection. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. The aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature, and our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. The contents of the vast majority of titles in the Classic Library have been scanned from the original works. To ensure a high quality product, each title has been meticulously hand curated by our staff. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with a book that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic work, and that for you it becomes an enriching experience.

The History of the Peloponnesian War

A New History of the Peloponnesian War is an ebook-only omnibus edition that includes all four volumes of Donald Kagan's acclaimed account of the war between Athens and Sparta (431–404 B.C.): The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, The Archidamian War, The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition, and The Fall of the Athenian Empire. Reviewing the four-volume set in The New Yorker, George Steiner wrote, "The temptation to acclaim Kagan's four volumes as the foremost work of history produced in North America in the twentieth century is vivid. . . . Here is an achievement that not only honors the criteria of dispassion and of unstinting scruple which mark the best of modern historicism but honors its readers." All four volumes are also sold separately as both print books and ebooks.

A New History of the Peloponnesian War

"Offers six exemplary case studies of Greeks and Romans at war, thoroughly illustrated with detailed battle maps and photographs"--Provided by publisher.

The Oxford Handbook of Warfare in the Classical World

The Peloponnesian War, a protracted and devastating conflict that unfolded between 431 and 404 BCE, was a pivotal event in ancient Greek history. This brutal struggle pitted the Athenian Empire, a naval superpower, against the militaristic Spartans and their Peloponnesian League allies. The war stemmed from power struggles, territorial disputes, and conflicting political ideologies, ultimately leading to Athens' defeat and the erosion of its dominance. Thucydides, a contemporary historian, meticulously chronicled the war's events, offering valuable insights into the dynamics of power, diplomacy, and human nature. The Peloponnesian War's enduring significance lies in its enduring lessons on the consequences of unchecked ambition, the fragility of alliances, and the destructive toll of prolonged conflict, providing invaluable insights even in today's digital age of SEO and geopolitics.

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