Thucydides

I've gotten to that point in The Peloponnesian War that I know that I am invested in it. I'm reading the Rex Warner translation. I finished Book II and I am not blurry eyed. I read through the whole work no less than twenty years ago but admittedly I ploughed through it like someone trying to read the entire Old Testament for the first time. It is still difficult reading and I've determined to be thankful for the imaginative speeches because they give my brain a break before the next section of dense factual rendering. A couple points to ponder. The plague in Athens sounded so gruesome that I'm grateful that COVID-19 sounds genuinely pleasant compared to it. Second, were the Spartans ever as tough as their historical reputation or are both Herodotus and Thucydides just genuinely biased against them? In both accounts the Spartans appear to be mostly timid and vacillating? My reading of later writers such as Xenophon and Polybius led me to think the Spartans had just lost their edge but I'm feeling like they never really had it. Lastly, the level of Athenian belief in their innate superiority to neighboring peoples, if as depicted by Pericles Funeral Oration, can explain a lot about the foolhardiness that led to the eventual downfall of their empire.

>1 riskedom: If you haven't already seen it, Donald Kagan's 'The Peloponnesian War" is excellent. After struggling through old Thucydides, his book was a breeze and fills in historical gaps with modern scholarship. I'm a non academic enjoyer of history and the book reads like a great documentary.

I may look into it. I just finished Book IV. I slowed down a bit after going back to work after the Thanksgiving Break but picked up a bit again this weekend. I do enjoy trying other translations just to mix things up a bit and find something more readable. When I lost my old Polybius and bought a newer and more readable translation, I was amazed at how much more I got out of it. It's hard to tell though whether its always the translation or the difference between my older more patient mind and my younger, more ambitious yet undisciplined mind. More reflection on the Spartans. I suspect Thucydides is trying to build a picture in the readers mind. The picture I see is that the only thing that defeated the Athenians was their blind and reckless ambition. If it weren't for that then neither plague, nor the Spartans or any of Sparta's allies could have defeated the obviously braver, smarter, more talented and politically superior Athenians and their empire. I still have books V through VIII left though so let's see what I think of Thucydides after that.

And I thought you were talking about a translation of Thucydides. Rather, a modern classic telling of The Peloponnesian War.

About fourteen pages left and I remembered that Thucydides never reaches the end of the war. I'm going to finish it tonight. I'll be grateful to let Xenophon pick up where Thucydides left off. Quick question: Why do so few commentators give Thucydides the business for his pro-Athenian stance while being quick to point out Xenophon's pro-Spartan stance? If I remember right it will be refreshing to have an author who puts his prejudices right out there as opposed to another who appears to downplay his biases with a veneer of objectivity.