The Peloponnesian War

Written in the late fifth century BCE, this history of the war between Athens and Sparta opens with a claim that the conflict would be the greatest yet among Greeks. Thucydides, an Athenian who served as a general and then lived in exile, narrates the outbreak, Pericles' strategy and death, the plague in Athens, the shifting alliances of city-states, and the disastrous Sicilian expedition. Speeches reconstruct the arguments of leaders and assemblies, including the debate over Mytilene and the terms offered to Melos. The surviving text breaks off in 411 BCE, before the war's end.

Bound in full-grain leather, front cover blocked in black and gold foils with a design by Nick Hayes. Gilded page-tops. Black grosgrain ribbon marker. Dark-brown cloth-covered slipcase lined with printed paper and front blocked in black and gold with a picture.