Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War is one of the earliest and most influential works in the western historiographical tradition. It provides an unfinished account of the war between Athens and her allies and Sparta and her allies which lasted from 431 to 404 BC, and is a masterpiece of narrative art and of political analysis. The twenty chapters in this Companion offer a wide range of perspectives on different aspects of the text, its interpretation and its significance. The nature of the text is explored in detail, and problems of Thucydides' historical and literary methodology are examined. Other chapters analyse the ways in which Thucydides' work illuminates, or complicates, our understanding of key historical questions for this period, above all those relating to the nature and conduct of war, politics, and empire. Finally, the book also explores the continuing legacy of Thucydides, from antiquity to the present day.
Author(s): Polly Low
Series: Cambridge Companions to Literature
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 400
City: Cambridge
Copyright_page
Dedication
Contents
Contributors
Preface
Abbreviations
Introduction
1. Context and Method
Establishing a New Genre
Thucydidean Self-Presentation
Thucydides’ Use of Evidence and Sources
Rhetorical History
Prolegomena to the Peloponnesian War
Time and Foresight in Thucydides
Labouring for Truth in Thucydides
2. Themes and Content
Thucydides and War
Thucydides on Empire and Imperialism
Ethnicity in Thucydides
Thucydides and Leadership
Thucydides on Democracy and Other Regimes
Justice and Morality in Thucydides
3. After Thucydides
Thucydides in Greek and Roman Historiography
Thucydides in Byzantium
Thucydides in the Renaissance and Reformation
Narratives of Thucydides and the 19th-Century Discipline of (Ancient) History
‘What Really Happened’
Translating Thucydides
Bibliography
Index Locorum
Subject Index
