I have heard that Thucydides (I read the Rex Warned translation) was stiff and dry in comparison to Herodotus. BUT, while he isn’t a patch on Herodotus for sheer enjoyment, I think his book is utterly thrilling, terrifying and absolutely excellent… apart from the Book 8, which did lose its pull for me a bit. It felt like a different book.

It is an adventure story, a battle strategy manual, a work of philosophical ponderings, a political exposé, true horror and, at times, almost funny in a Monty Python or Dads Army (if you are in the U.K.) sort of way… oh and a history too.. maybe all historians are biased.. maybe Thucydides is like all the rest… . My edition says Thucydides had a ‘passion for accuracy and a contempt for myth and romance’. Who knows…

I did have a wry smile at the chaotic battles where no one seemed to know what they were doing. Sometimes both sides declaring victory.. mistakes, misunderstandings and shenanigans.

I tried the Crawley translation which was like wading through mud for me… then the Martin Hammond and the Rex Warner translations. The Warner one just spoke to me the most so I read that in the end... I do think you need a Landmark edition with maps and illustrations to help locate all the places mentioned… or some other easy to use book of maps of the areas referred to in the time period of the Peloponnesian War. There are maps at the back in my Penguin edition but they are pretty rubbish and important places are always in the crease of the book if you see what I mean.

I wasn’t expecting the awfulness of the Athenians.. somehow we think of Sparta as the bad guys, or at least I did.. but oh my goodness those Athenians were cruel… the slaughter at Melos and , Myclaessus (under the command of Athenian general - an idyllic happy city with no defences and open gates to the world) and the Mytilene population saved in the nick of time, and the invasion and terror in Sicily! 

Some of the speechs in this book are long. I know Thucydides paraphrased them … but I got to really enjoy reading them. 


As others have said before, through the ages, this book could have been written yesterday, just change the names and places… and that was terrifying. It is deeply sad that we humans just carry on committing the same mistakes. I fail to believe we will ever learn to be honest. A line in the book says about war coming about due to fear of the other side.. there is much in that I think.


Anyway, to liken the book to the present too much and to get wrapped up in comparing and head shaking would be a shame.. because it is incredible in its own right and very much worth reading. I now want to reread The Iliad …