The History of the Peloponnesian War

A quarter century of war. Heroes on both sides. Suffering everywhere.In the fifth century BCE, Athens was the dominant city state in Ancient Greece and master of the alliance known as the Delian League. It used its dominance to repel and then attack the Persian Empire, which had repeatedly invaded Greece.But the growth of Athenian power worried the leaders of other Greek cities. Sparta was the most powerful city state in the Peloponnese region and leader of its own alliance - the Peloponnesian League. As the Athenian empire grew, the two cities grew apart. An alliance that had served them against the Persians was replaced by suspicion and then by war. From 431 to 404 BCE, the Greek world was consumed by conflict as Athens and Sparta struggled for supremacy.This volume contains one of the most trusted translations of the most famous account of the war between Athens and Sparta.Thucydides' account of the Peloponnesian War, translated here by the Welsh scholar Richard Crawley, is an essential narrative of this critical moment in the history of the Mediterranean world. It reveals both the events that marked the course of the conflict and the personalities that shaped it. This beautiful modern edition contains the complete text in an easy-to-read format.