Thucydides: Book VI / Edition 1

by Thucydides

Overview

Book VI of Thucydides deals, through its speeches in particular, with Athenian motivation towards sending the great expedition to Sicily, with the attitudes of various factions involved, and with the seeds of the expedition's ultimate disastrous conclusion. It contains memorable sections on Alcibiades, on the Athenians' excitement at the sailing, on the mutilation of the Herms and a digression on the fall of Athenian tyranny a century earlier. This edition, with introduction and notes, is designed to help senior school and university students read, understand and enjoy Thycydides. Its notes aim to assist translation, draw attention to features of language and style characteristic of the author, make explicit what the author took for granted in his original Greek audience, comment on the historical background, and offer grounds on which to reach decisions as to whether the author's historical statements are true or false.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781853995873
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	09/23/1999
Series:	Greek Texts
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.45(d)

About the Author

Thucydides (c. 460–c.395 BC) was a Greek historian and Athenian general. His History of the Peloponnesian War recounts the 5th century BC war between Sparta and Athens. Thucydides has been called the father of "scientific history", and of political realism.

Read an Excerpt

ARGUMENTS. BOOK III.—[continued.] i Ear v1. Earthquakes about Euboea, and inundations; natural causes considered—The Athenians gain Mylae and Mes- sene—They send Demosthenes with thirty galleys about Peloponnesus, and Nicias with sixty to the island of Melos —The army/of Nicias, and another from Athens, meet by appointment at Tanagra in Boeotia—They overcome the Ta- nagraeans—The Lacedaemonians found Heraclea commodi- ously situated for the war—The Thessalians harass it with perpetual hostilities, lest the colonists should be too formidable ; dwindles to nothing by the severity of the Lacedaemonian government—Demosthenes proceeds to Leucas ; at the persuasion of the Messenians, invades jEtolia—The -Etolians collect for defence, and completely defeat him— The Athenian fleet in Sicily sails to Locris, and takes a guard-fort—The jEtolians and Peloponnesians undertake an expedition against Naupactus—Demosthenes relieves Nau- pactus—The end of the sixth summer—The Athenians in Sicily attack Inessa—Delos purified—An edict that none should be suffered to be born or die in Delos—Rhenea, an island, bound to Delos with a chain, and dedicated to the Delian Apollo—The Athenians institute the quinquennial games at Delos—The Ambraciots and Peloponnesians undertake an unsuccessful expedition against the Acarnanians and Amphilochians—They lay siege to Olpae—The Acarnanians offer Demosthenes the command of their forces—The Ambraciots at Olpae send to the Ambraciots at home to come to their aid—Demosthenes chosen general—Engagement of the Ambraciots and the Acarnanians—TheAmbraciots and Peloponnesians take to flight—Demosthenes suffers the principal Peloponnesians to retire from Olpae secretly ; his reason for so doing—The Mantineans retire from Olpae—The Ambraciots go in pursuit of them, an...