The History of the Peloponnesian War

Written in the late fifth century BCE, this history of the war between Athens and Sparta opens with an account of early Greece and of the growth of Athenian power, then follows the conflict year by year from 431 BCE through plague, revolts, the Peace of Nicias, and the Sicilian expedition, breaking off before the final defeat. Thucydides, an Athenian general and exile, analyses cause, speech, and chance; Pericles, Cleon, Brasidas, Alcibiades, and Nicias are principal figures. The work is a political and military narrative of one war, not a general ethnography of Greece.

Quarter bound in purple-red series binding, lilac cloth boards with a Greek warrior design in red-brown. Map endleaves. Dark red slipcase.