The Ancient Greek World at War

War has no redeeming features. The only good thing about the Peloponnesian War, fought between Athens and Sparta from 431 to 404 BC, is that it attracted the attention of Thucydides, whom many consider to have been ‘the greatest historian ever’ (as per the British historian and statesman Lord Macaulay) for his analysis of events and intellectual sophistication. Thucydides was an eyewitness to some episodes, and carefully interviewed other actors to gain as accurate an account as possible of the whole war. He wrote it all up in a work we call The History of the Peloponnesian War, first properly translated into English by Thomas Hobbes in 1629. The style of the book is often experimental, but always confident. His Greek was considered difficult even in his own day, but it always matches the intensity of the narrative. If he had given his work a title, he might have called it The War between the Athenians and the Peloponnesians, avoiding the Athenocentrism of the title we habitually give it.