History of the Peloponnesian War
By (Author) Thucydides
Introduction by M. Finley
Translated by Rex Warner
Penguin Books Ltd
Penguin Classics
31st December 1963
28th February 1974
United Kingdom
General
Non Fiction
Ancient history
938.05
Paperback
656
Width 128mm, Height 198mm, Spine 36mm
475g
Written 400 years before the birth of Christ, this detailed contemporary account of the long life-and-death struggle between Athens and Sparta stands an excellent chance of fulfilling its author's ambitious claim. Thucydides himself was an Athenian and achieved the rank of general in the earlier stages of the war. He applied thereafter a passion for accuracy and a contempt for myth and romance in compiling this factual record of a disastrous conflict.
THUCYDIDES was born probably about 460BC. He took a small part in the Peloponnesian War when it broke out in 431BC. 'The Peoloponnesian War' is the only surviving source for much of the period that he describes. Some of the chronological inconsistencies have been the cause of controversy among scholars for centuries. Rex Warner 1905-1986 was a classical scholar of Wadham College, Oxford. M. I. Finley was a lecturer in Classics and then Professor of Ancient History at Cambridge. He died in 1986