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History of the Peloponnesian War

by Thucydides

The first great work of political history. Thucydides reports the twenty-seven-year war between Athens and Sparta as he saw it — speeches, plagues, betrayals, and the slow corruption of every virtue under the pressure of war. Pericles' Funeral Oration, the Plague of Athens, the Melian Dialogue, the Sicilian Expedition: the foundations of how the West thinks about power.

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Chapters
  1. Chapter 1Book 1, Chapter 1 — The State of Greece from the earliest Times to the Commencement of the Peloponnesian War
  2. Chapter 2Book 1, Chapter 2 — Causes of the War—The Affair of Epidamnus—The Affair of Potidæa
  3. Chapter 3Book 1, Chapter 3 — Congress of the Peloponnesian Confederacy at Lacedaemon
  4. Chapter 4Book 1, Chapter 4 — From the end of the Persian to the beginning of the Peloponnesian War—The Progress from Supremacy to Empire
  5. Chapter 5Book 1, Chapter 5 — Second Congress at Lacedaemon—Preparations for War and Diplomatic Skirmishes—Cylon—Pausanias—Themistocles
  6. Chapter 6Book 2, Chapter 6 — Beginning of the Peloponnesian War—First Invasion of Attica—Funeral Oration of Pericles
  7. Chapter 7Book 2, Chapter 7 — Second Year of the War—The Plague of Athens—Position and Policy of Pericles—Fall of Potidæa
  8. Chapter 8Book 2, Chapter 8 — Third Year of the War—Investment of Plataea—Naval Victories of Phormio—Thracian Irruption into Macedonia under Sitalces
  9. Chapter 9Book 3, Chapter 9 — Fourth and Fifth Years of the War—Revolt of Mitylene
  10. Chapter 10Book 3, Chapter 10 — Fifth Year of the War—Trial and Execution of the Plataeans— Corcyraean Revolution
  11. Chapter 11Book 3, Chapter 11 — Year of the War—Campaigns of Demosthenes in Western Greece—Ruin of Ambracia
  12. Chapter 12Book 4, Chapter 12 — Seventh Year of the War—Occupation of Pylos—Surrender of the Spartan Army in Sphacteria
  13. Chapter 13Book 4, Chapter 13 — Seventh and Eighth Years of the War—End of Corcyraean Revolution— Peace of Gela—Capture of Nisaea
  14. Chapter 14Book 4, Chapter 14 — Eighth and Ninth Years of the War—Invasion of Boeotia—Fall of Amphipolis—Brilliant Successes of Brasidas
  15. Chapter 15Book 5, Chapter 15 — Tenth Year of the War—Death of Cleon and Brasidas—Peace of Nicias
  16. Chapter 16Book 5, Chapter 16 — Feeling against Sparta in Peloponnese—League of the Mantineans, Eleans, Argives, and Athenians—Battle of Mantinea and breaking up of the League
  17. Chapter 17Book 5, Chapter 17 — Sixteenth Year of the War—The Melian Conference—Fate of Melos
  18. Chapter 18Book 6, Chapter 18 — Seventeenth Year of the War—The Sicilian Campaign—Affair of the Hermae—Departure of the Expedition
  19. Chapter 19Book 6, Chapter 19 — Seventeenth Year of the War—Parties at Syracuse—Story of Harmodius and Aristogiton—Disgrace of Alcibiades
  20. Chapter 20Book 6, Chapter 20 — Seventeenth and Eighteenth Years of the War—Inaction of the Athenian Army—Alcibiades at Sparta—Investment of Syracuse
  21. Chapter 21Book 7, Chapter 21 — Eighteenth and Nineteenth Years of the War—Arrival of Gylippus at Syracuse—Fortification of Decelea—Successes of the Syracusans
  22. Chapter 22Book 7, Chapter 22 — Nineteenth Year of the War—Arrival of Demosthenes—Defeat of the Athenians at Epipolae—Folly and Obstinancy of Nicias
  23. Chapter 23Book 7, Chapter 23 — Nineteenth Year of the War—Battles in the Great Harbour—Retreat and Annihilation of the Athenian Army
  24. Chapter 24Book 8, Chapter 24 — Nineteenth and Twentieth Years of the War—Revolt of Ionia— Intervention of Persia—The War in Ionia
  25. Chapter 25Book 8, Chapter 25 — Twentieth and Twenty-first Years of the War—Intrigues of Alcibiades—Withdrawal of the Persian Subsidies—Oligarchical Coup d’Etat at Athens—Patriotism of the Army at Samos
  26. Chapter 26Book 8, Chapter 26 — Twenty-first Year of the War—Recall of Alcibiades to Samos—Revolt of Euboea and Downfall of the Four Hundred—Battle of Cynossema

Book 1, Chapter 1 — 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.

There is also another circumstance that contributes not a little to my conviction of the weakness of ancient times. Before the Trojan war there is no indication of any common action in Hellas, nor indeed of the universal prevalence of the name; on the contrary, before the time of Hellen, son of Deucalion, no such appellation existed, but the country went by the names of the different tribes, in particular of the Pelasgian. It was not till Hellen and his sons grew strong in Phthiotis, and were invited as allies into the other cities, that one by one they gradually acquired from the connection the name of Hellenes; though a long time elapsed before that name could fasten itself upon all. The best proof of this is furnished by Homer. Born long after the Trojan War, he nowhere calls all of them by that name, nor indeed any of them except the followers of Achilles from Phthiotis, who were the original Hellenes: in his poems...