num_pages: 574
description: Thucydides' entire contribution to history &amp; historiography is contained in this dense history of the 27-year war between Athens &amp; allies against Sparta &amp; its allies. It breaks off near the end of the 21st year. Thucydides believed the war represented an event of unparalleled magnitude. He intended his account to serve as "a possession for all time."Thucydides is regarded as one of the first true historians. Like his predecessor Herodotus, he placed a high value on autopsy &amp; eyewitness testimony, &amp; wrote about many episodes in which he probably took part. He also consulted written documents &amp; interviewed participants. Unlike Herodotus, he didn't recognize divine interventions. He may have held unconscious biases—he underestimates the importance of Persian intervention—but he was the first who attempted anything like modern objectivity.One difference between Thucydides' history &amp; modern writing is that his includes lengthy speeches that were as best as could be remembered—or, perhaps, what he thought ought have been said. Nevertheless, unless a historian were to write them down, these speeches wouldn't have been archived at all, which isn't the case today, when records abound. Therefore he didn't merely go to the source, as a historian proper nowadays does, but actually rescued his mostly oral sources from oblivion. These speeches are composed in a literary manner.
language: English
title: The Peloponnesian War
titlecomplete: The Peloponnesian War
characters: Pericles, Alcibiades, Thucydides, Nicias (Athens)
genres: War, Politics, Greece, Philosophy, Nonfiction, Ancient, Ancient History, Classics, Military Fiction, History
ratings_count: 37242
places: Greece, Syracuse, Sicily
publisher: Random House, Inc.