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Title: The History of the Peloponnesian War
Author: Thucydides
translated by Richard Crawley
Release Date: December, 2004 [EBook #7142]
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[This file was first posted on March 15, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HISTORY OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR ***
This etext was prepared by Albert Imrie, Colorado, USA
THE HISTORY OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR
by Thucydides 431 BC
translated by Richard Crawley
With Permission
to
CONNOP THIRLWALL
Historian of Greece
This Translation of the Work of His
Great Predecessor
is Respectfully Inscribed
by
-The Translator-
CONTENTS
The state of Greece from the earliest Times to the
Commencement of the Peloponnesian War
Causes of the War - The Affair of Epidamnus -
The Affair of Potidaea
Congress of the Peloponnesian Confederacy at
Lacedaemon
From the End of the Persian to the Beginning of
the Peloponnesian War - The Progress from
Supremacy to Empire
Second Congress at Lacedaemon - Preparations for
War and Diplomatic Skirmishes - Cylon -
Pausanias - Themistocles
Beginning of the Peloponnesian War - First
Invasion of Attica - Funeral Oration of Pericles
Second Year of the War - The Plague of Athens -
Position and Policy of Pericles - Fall of Potidaea
Third Year of the War - Investment of Plataea -
Naval Victories of Phormio - Thracian Irruption
into Macedonia under Sitalces
Fourth and Fifth Years of the War - Revolt of
Mitylene
Fifth Year of the War - Trial and Execution of the
Plataeans - Corcyraean Revolution
Sixth Year of the War - Campaigns of Demosthenes
in Western Greece - Ruin of Ambracia
Seventh Year of the War - Occupation of pylos -
Surrender of the Spartan Army in Sphacteria
Seventh and Eighth Years of the War - End of
Corcyraean Revolution - Peace of Gela -
Capture of Nisaea
Eighth and Ninth Years of the War - Invasion of
Boeotia - Fall of Amphipolis - Brilliant Successes
of Brasidas
Tenth Year of the War - Death of Cleon and
Brasidas - Peace of Nicias
Feeling against Sparta in Peloponnese - League
of the Mantineans, Eleans, Argives, and
Athenians - Battle of Mantinea and breaking up of
the League
Sixteenth Year of the War - The Melian
Conference - Fate of Melos
Seventeenth Year of the War - The Sicilian
Campaign - Affair of the Hermae - Departure of the
Expedition
Seventeenth Year of the War - Parties at Syracuse -
Story of Harmodius and Aristogiton -
Disgrace of Alcibiades
Seventeenth and Eighteenth Years of the War -
Inaction of the Athenian Army - Alcibiades at
Sparta -Investment of Syracuse
Eighteenth and Nineteenth Years of the War -
Arrival of Gylippus at Syracuse - Fortification
of Decelea - Successes of the Syracusans
Nineteenth Year of the War - Arrival of
Demosthenes - Defeat of the Athenians at Epipolae -
Folly and Obstinacy of Nicias
Nineteenth Year of the War - Battles in the Great
Harbour - Retreat and Annihilation of the
Athenian Army
Nineteenth and Twentieth Years of the War -
Revolt of Ionia - Intervention of Persia - The
War in Ionia
Twentieth and Twenty-first Years of the War -
Intrigues of Alcibiades - Withdrawal of the
Persian Subsidies - Oligarchical Coup d’Etat
at Athens - Patriotism of the Army at Samos
Twenty first Year of the War - Recall of
Alcibiades to Samos - Revolt of Euboea and
Downfall of the Four Hundred - Battle of Cynossema
_The State of Greece from the earliest Times to the
Commencement of the Peloponnesian War_
Thucydides, an Athenian, wrote the history of the war between
the Peloponnesians and the Athenians, beginning at the moment
that it broke out, and believing that it would be a great war
and more worthy of relation than any that had preceded it.
This belief was not without its grounds. The preparations of
both the combatants were in every department in the last state
of perfection; and he could see the rest of the Hellenic race
taking sides in the quarrel; those who delayed doing so at once
having it in contemplation. Indeed this was the greatest movement
yet known in history, not only of the Hellenes, but of a large
part of the barbarian world—I had almost said of mankind. For
though the events of remote antiquity, and even those that more
immediately preceded the war, could not from lapse of time be
clearly ascertained, yet the evidences which an inquiry carried
as far back as was practicable leads me to trust, all point to
the conclusion that there was nothing on a great scale, either in
war or in other matters.
For instance, it is evident that the country now called Hellas
had in ancient times no settled population; on the contrary,
migrations were of frequent occurrence, the several tribes
readily abandoning their homes under the pressure of superior
numbers. Without commerce, without freedom of communication
either by land or sea, cultivating no more of their territory
than the exigencies of life required, destitute of capital,
never planting their land (for they could not tell when an invader
might not come and take it all away, and when he did come they
had no walls to stop him), thinking that the necessities of
daily sustenance could be supplied at one place as well as
another, they cared little for shifting their habitation, and
consequently neither built large cities nor attained to any other
form of greatness. The richest soils were always most subject
to this change of masters; such as the district now called
Thessaly, Boeotia, most of the Peloponnese, Arcadia excepted,
and the most fertile parts of the rest of Hellas. The goodness
of the land favoured the aggrandizement of particular individuals,
and thus created faction which proved a fertile source of ruin.
It also invited invasion. Accordingly Attica, from the poverty
of its soil enjoying from a very remote period freedom from
faction, never changed its inhabitants. And here is no
inconsiderable exemplification of my assertion that the migrations
were the cause of there being no correspondent growth in other
parts. The most powerful victims of war or faction from
the rest of Hellas took refuge with the Athenians as a safe
retreat; and at an early period, becoming naturalized,
swelled the already large population of the city to such a
height that Attica became at last too small to hold them, and
they had to send out colonies to Ionia.
There is also another circumstance that contributes not a little
to my conviction of the weakness of ancient times. Before the Trojan
war there is no indication of any common action in Hellas, nor
indeed of the universal prevalence of the name; on the contrary,
before the time of Hellen, son of Deucalion, no such appellation
existed, but the country went by the names of the different tribes, in
particular of the Pelasgian. It was not till Hellen and his sons
grew strong in Phthiotis, and were invited as allies into the other
cities, that one by one they gradually acquired from the connection
the name of Hellenes; though a long time elapsed before that name
could fasten itself upon all. The best proof of this is furnished by
Homer. Born long after the Trojan War, he nowhere calls all of them by
that name, nor indeed any of them except the followers of Achilles
from Phthiotis, who were the original Hellenes: in his poems they
are called Danaans, Argives, and Achaeans. He does not even use the
term barbarian, probably because the Hellenes had not yet been
marked off from the rest of the world by one distinctive
appellation. It appears therefore that the several Hellenic
communities, comprising not only those who first acquired the name,
city by city, as they came to understand each other, but also those
who assumed it afterwards as the name of the whole people, were before
the Trojan war prevented by their want of strength and the absence
of mutual intercourse from displaying any collective action.
Indeed, they could not unite for this expedition till they had
gained increased familiarity with the sea. And the first person
known to us by tradition as having established a navy is Minos. He
made himself master of what is now called the Hellenic sea, and
ruled over the Cyclades, into most of which he sent the first
colonies, expelling the Carians and appointing his own sons governors;
and thus did his best to put down piracy in those waters, a
necessary step to secure the revenues for his own use.
For in early times the Hellenes and the barbarians of the coast
and islands, as communication by sea became more common, were
tempted to turn pirates, under the conduct of their most powerful men;
the motives being to serve their own cupidity and to support the
needy. They would fall upon a town unprotected by walls, and
consisting of a mere collection of villages, and would plunder it;
indeed, this came to be the main source of their livelihood, no
disgrace being yet attached to such an achievement, but even some
glory. An illustration of this is furnished by the honour with which
some of the inhabitants of the continent still regard a successful
marauder, and by the question we find the old poets everywhere
representing the people as asking of voyagers—“Are they pirates?”—as
if those who are asked the question would have no idea of
disclaiming the imputation, or their interrogators of reproaching them
for it. The same rapine prevailed
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