Summary Of Thucydides: The Peloponnesian War

The Peloponnesian War pitted the Athenians against the Spartans. The Peloponnesians’ were an alliance of city-states controlled by Sparta. These two powerful city-states became locked in a struggle for dominance of the eastern Mediterranean area. The roots of the conflict and in particular this expedition is highly complex. As Thucydides says in his history of the war, the underlying cause was Spartan fear of Athens' expansive power. But, the triggering event was Athens' aggressive behavior towards Corinth, an ally of Sparta.

1) According to Thucydides, during the civil war at Corcyra a re-evaluation of values took place in the populace (3.82). Explain the nature of these re-evaluations, and the reason(s) they took place.

The Peloponnesian war lasted from 431 to 404 B.C. and was profoundly influenced by two Athenian men, Pericles and Alcibiades. Though Pericles and Alcibiades were related by blood they were quite different. Pericles was a diplomat, he approached matters with a level head and tried to find a solution that did not end in bloodshed. Alcibiades was less stable, he either fought, manipulated, or ran when confronted with a problem. Both men spoke eloquently enough to move almost the entire city of Athens, using their words to bend people to their will.  What was different between them was what their will was, one cared about the city and its wellbeing, the other cared about his own wellbeing.

Action from necessity is a constantly recurring theme in Thucydides’ The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War. A sentiment used to explain the growth of the Athenian Empire which some Athenians espoused to an assembly at Sparta best quantifies necessity, “. . . we were necessarily compelled at first to advance the hegemony to where it is—especially by fear, and then by honor, and later by benefit.” (Selected Passages 1.75.3). This claim, referred to as the Athenian Thesis, is used to advance the two following implications: all states act with the motivations of fear, honor and interest and no one can condemn a state for doing so. The Athenian Thesis influences the way many of the Athenian elite structure their patterns of reasoning in both noticeable and subtle ways.

Throughout the Ancient Greek world, there have been many wars and standoffs. However, there has been only one which changed the course of Greek history forever; the Peloponnesian War. Caused by the growing tension between Athens and Sparta, it came and left, leaving only destruction in its wake. The defeat of Athens in the Peloponnesian War caused the downfall of Greece, and the end of the Classical Age.

"Just before the Peloponnesian War began, Pericles of Athens and King Archidamus of Sparta provided net assessments of the comparative strengths and weaknesses of the two sides. Evaluate their projections."

Homer’s Iliad and Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War ask if death and philotēs can exist simultaneously. In the respective texts, that which Achilles and the Athenians encounter prove they will not exist in harmony for “human nature” is “incapable of controlling passion” and “the enemy of anything superior” (HPW 3.84). When Achilles does not receive his earned honor after battle and death’s toll from the war blurs the Athenians’ identity, their grief causes apathy. Achilles withdraws from his own people with a “rage, black and murderous” causing his own army to buckle which parallels the Athenians who at Pylos become “obsessed with the idea...to attack Spartans” (HPW 4.34). Before these cruel lapses in judgment, both desire

First we will examine the sources that Thucydides used and why he uses speeches. Thucydides was the main source of the information as he lived and held command as a general during the Peloponnesian War up until his exile to Peloponnesian territory (Thucydides p. 102). His position as a general makes Thucydides an excellent eye witness to many of these instances. Thucydides spending time with the Peloponnesians gained him insight into those people and how they would have operated. Thucydides uses himself as his main source as he held a high position in society and would have access to the events of the war.

Undeniably, the ancient Greek society places a heavy emphasis on values and traditions. The two texts of the “Clouds” by Aristophanes and “History of the Peloponnesian war” by Thucydides, although contextually divergent, are actually conceptually convergent. Both texts are built around the central theme of the collapse of conventional values. While the breakdown of traditional values in the “History of the Peloponnesian war” is presented in a more metaphorical and symbolical manner, the downfall of conventional values in the “Clouds” is on a more direct basis. Although both texts essentially convey across the same solemn message that the relinquishment of

The Peloponnesian war (431–404 BC) was an ancient Greek war fought by Athens against the Peloponnesian led by Sparta. Thucydides famously claims that the war started “because the Spartans were afraid of further growth of Athenian power, seeing as they did have the greater part of Hellas was under the control of Athens”. The two main protagonists from opposing sides Lysander and Alcibiades had the most influential impact on the end of the war.

of events which I am going to look at to see if there was a single

The book written by Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War, contains two controversial debates between distinguished speakers of Athens. The two corresponding sides produce convincing arguments which can be taken as if produced as an honest opinion or out of self-interest. The two debates must be analyzed separately in order to conclude which one and which side was speaking out of honest opinion or self-interest, as well as which speakers are similar to each other in their approach to the situation.

The Peloponnesian War was the turning point in Athenian hegemony in Ancient Greece. It was fought in 431 B.C. between the Delian League, led by Athens, and the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. According to Thucydides, Athens’ imposing hegemonic status and its overwhelming quest for more power made the Peloponnesian War and Athens’s eventual fall from power inevitable. Despite the Athenians having a far more superior navy and being considerably wealthier, they were defeated and made subjects of Sparta. In this paper, I will discuss Thucydides’ and Socrates’ reasons for why

Thucydides was born 460 B.C and died 395. He was born in Alimos greece and died in Athens greece.Thucydides was the author of the history of the Peloponnesian war and what he said it started because Athens was to greedy.According to History.com Thucydides chronicled nearly 30 years of war and tension between sparta and Athens.Thucydides is important for our world because without the Peloponnesian war are democracy wouldn’t be the same like it was back then we pretty much would have a different world without this war and with Thucydides writing about it that helped even more.Life would be definitely different if we didn’t have this person because this guy was mainly the reason why we had this war to begin with and are democracy would look very different today.Thucydides played a big part in the people in war like he was the cause of the first preemptive attack by the spartans and was the cause of all of this getting started by him thinking Athens is being greedy.With Thucydides is luck athens won the Peloponnesian war which causes Athens democracy and spartans democracy to change.So, all in all thucydides was pretty much the leader of the athens in the Peloponnesian war.Thucydides is best known for writing the history of Peloponnesian war this is really what made him famous.Thucydides is one of the greatest ancient greek historians according to britannica.com.

The Melian Dialogue is a debate between Melian and Athenian representatives concerning the sovereignty of Melos. The debate did not really occur-the arguments given by each side were of Thucydides own creation. Thus it is reasonable to assume that we can tease out Thucydides' own beliefs. In this paper, I will first extract Thucydides views from the Melian Dialogue and then analyze whether or not these views are well founded.