history of the peloponnesian war · thucydides

Thucydides, an Athenian general exiled after a failed command, wrote the history of the war between Athens and Sparta, 431 to 404 BC, as 'a possession for all time'. Its speeches, Pericles' funeral oration, the Mytilenian debate and the Melian dialogue, are the first analysis of power, justice, fear and interest between states, and the Sicilian expedition is its tragedy.

Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, edited by M. I. Finley and translated by Rex Warner (Penguin Classics, 1972). Read in Freshman Fall at Torrey Honors: from Book 1, the Introduction, the Debate at Sparta and Declaration of War, and the Spartan Ultimatum and Pericles' Reply; from Book 2, Pericles' Funeral Oration, the Plague, and the Policy of Pericles; from Book 3, the Mytilenian Debate; from Book 5, the Melian Dialogue; from Book 6, the Launching of the Sicilian Expedition, the Story of Harmodius and Aristogeiton, the Recall of Alcibiades, and Alcibiades in Sparta; and from Book 7, the Destruction of the Athenian Expedition, sections 84 to 87.