
The History of the Peloponnesian War
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Narrado por:
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Pat Bottino
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De:
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Thucydides
Thucydides actually participated in this conflict, a war that he realized would have a greater influence on the history of Greece than any other. The History of the Peloponnesian War is true to its title; it is a story of battles and sieges, of alliances hastily made and soon broken, and, most importantly, of the behavior of people as the war dragged on and on - of the inevitable "corrosion of the human spirit".
Thucydides, whose passionate desire to record the truth is clearly apparent, vividly narrates exciting episodes and carefully describes tactical aspects of the war. He also provides illuminating character profiles. Few will argue that Thucydides was not the greatest and most exciting historian of antiquity.
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There is no glorification of particular heroes and no divine explanations of events. Thucydides was detailed in his accounts of all sides in these wars and in his analyses of their actions. He pointed out strengths and weaknesses in politicians and soldiers on both sides. He used multiple sources, as well as his own experiences. He analyzed quite critically the reasons for the wars and various actors' deeds, dismissing, with explanation, those rationales he found unsupported. Although an Athenian, he leveled his insight equally on both the Athenians and the Spartans.
His critical approach and cogent analysis bring the ancient atmosphere to life and make the ancient Greeks seem real.
Thucydides richly earned the title of the first modern historian.
The beginning of modern history
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Undeniably great book, but poor reading
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From a certain perspective, the Peloponnesian War never ended. At heart, this was the first war between democracy and oligarchy. Thucydides tells about many battles, many truces, and inevitable rekindling of hostilities. Some ancient Greeks longed for humane treatment for POWs, but brutality always seems to have been preferred. Some cities appealed to charity and generosity, but that appeal always lost to the allure of wealth and military strength. Some political scientists classify Thucydides as a ‘realist’, but I suppose they have to assume that he really approved of ‘realism’. He described both sides and observed that men choose self interest over kindness in political matters.
I thought the narrator did a very nice job. He seems to have a good grasp of Greek pronunciation, at least insofar as I can tell. For example, he pronounces ‘Boeotia’ correctly.
Well read, great piece
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Got Me Past the Greek Names
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For me, there is not much better than Thucydides' speeches. "The Funeral Oration of Pericles", "Diodotus to the Athenian Ecclesia", "Demosthenes to his troops at Pylos" & "Nicias before the last sea fight" are all some of the most interesting, moving and inspiring speeches and harangues ever written.
This book is a must for students of the classics, politics, history and war. Hell, even if you are just interested in a good story, Thucydides tells a mighty good one. This is an amazing, beautiful and important piece of history.
Amazing, Beautiful and Important Piece of History
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Thucydides was a general for the Athenian side during the early part of the war. Apparently, he was captured and held in or near Sparta for part of the rest of the war. He says the war lasted for twenty-seven years altogether, but my copy of this recording ended at the end of twenty-one years. I am not sure if this is because my copy is defective, because the producers intentionally cut it off there, because the translation only goes that far, or because Thucydides only got that far with his writing. Anyway, I never did find out who won. However, I suspect it doesn’t matter much, because for the first twenty-one years of the war the upper hand kept passing back and forth between the Athenians and the Peloponnesians, and people were getting killed at a steady rate, their fields and ships destroyed, and all their money used up or stolen. If they didn’t basically fight to a draw, whoever won must have been left masters of a lot of broken walls, empty fields, and widows and orphans.
Thucydides makes some interesting observations at the beginning of the history, however. He hypothesizes that for generations before the war wandering groups of people had been fighting back and forth over the entirety of Greece, everybody fighting for the best fields and pastures. He speculates that this fighting was more common in the Peloponnese because they had more fertile fields there. Attica, where Athens is, on the other hand, was somewhat less fought over because the land there wasn’t as good, so its population was more stable. Being closer to the sea, they went in for shipbuilding and fishing and the like, and by the time of the war, their chief occupation was piracy. Apparently, everybody was a pirate.
So, in the Peloponnesian War, there was a big land power fighting a big sea power. They dragged in all their allies, and every colony – which means every town and island in the place – rebelled against whichever one of the combatants controlled them, one or two at a time. This is another case where having the audiobook was in a way a detriment because there is no way to keep up with all the little places. A map would have been nice. And I can’t talk much about who did what to whom, because there is no way I could spell all the names. So, I am very grateful to the narrator for getting me through all that – although it sounded like he had some trouble with all the Greek names too.
Good if you like military history
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