The History of the Peloponnesian War

Book One, Chapter One: The State of Greece from the earliest Times to the Commencement of the Peloponnesian War

Reading Thucydides classic, written almost five centuries before the birth of Christ, I found myself struck by how utterly modern he seems. He begins by outlining the history of the Hellenes and the circumstances that led to the great war. He is well aware that he is dealing with the stuff of legends and poetry, and the uncertainties those pose. His voice is cool but not without passion, and he goes to some trouble to tell of the pains he went to to check and cross check his facts while recognizing the inevitable ambiguities that remain.


If your knowledge of Greek geography is no better than mine, you might quickly find yourself lost in a forest of place names. Fortunately, you can just open this great online map of ancient Greece. The map is active, so buttoning on most places will bring up historical and other background. Props to Bernard Suzanne who posted it.

The two great powers of Greece, Athens and Sparta had combined to defeat the Persian army - the greatest triump of Hellenes united. After the victory, the alliance ruptured. Before giving the reasons advanced by the parties as grievances, he gives his own diagnosis:

To the question why they broke the treaty, I answer by placing first an account of their grounds of complaint and points of difference, that no one may ever have to ask the immediate cause which plunged the Hellenes into a war of such magnitude. The real cause I consider to be the one which was formally most kept out of sight. The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Lacedaemon, made war inevitable. Still it is well to give the grounds alleged by either side which led to the dissolution of the treaty and the breaking out of the war.

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