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Map of ancient GreeceThis post looks at Chapters 30 through 63 of Book Eight, covering the war from the winter of 412/1 into the summer of 411 BC. The focus remains on the Aegean Sea and Ionia with the Atheniana attempting to quell revolts in the area at the beginning of this section. The narrative […]
Map of ancient GreeceThis post looks at Chapters 1 through 29 of Book Eight, covering the activities immediately after the defeat of Athens in Sicily at the end of summer 413 BC into the winter of 412/1 BC. The focus of the war and Thucydides’ history turns to the Aegean Sea and Ionia as many […]
The Athenians hasted to get the river Asinarus; not only because they were urged on every side by the assault of the many horsemen and other multitude, and thought to be more at ease when they were over the river, but out of weariness also and desire to drink. When they were come unto the […]
Athenian siege of Syracuse Picture source The Thracians, therefore, that came too late to go with Demosthenes, they presently sent back, as being unwilling to lay out money in such a scarcity: and gave the charge of carrying them back to Diitrephes, with command as he went along those coasts, (for his way was through […]
Athenian siege of Syracuse Picture source And the Syracusian horsemen, which were ever abroad for scouts, spurring up to the camp of the Athenians, amongst other scorns asked them, whether they came not rather to dwell in the land of another than to restore the Leontines to their own. (Book Six, Chapter 63) This post […]
I had mentioned the Walker Percy documentary, directed by Win Riley, a while back. It is now available on DVD. Ordering information, as well as access to the entire site (with a preview), can be found here. From the website: In a rare television interview in 1980, Walker Percy said his concerns as writer were […]
The same winter the Athenians, with greater forces than they had before sent out with Laches and Eurymedon, resolved to go again into Sicily; and if they could, wholly to subdue it: being for the most part ignorant both of the greatness of the island, and of the multitude of people, as well Greeks as […]
YouTube link A modern re-enactment of the negotiations between the Athenians and the Melians as reconstructed by Thucydides, the ancient Greek historian of the Peloponnesian War (taken from The War that Never Ends, 1991, directed by Jack Gold)This post looks at Chapters 84 through 116 of Book Five, covering what is commonly called the Melian […]
Apparently my re-reading of Herodotus last year represented good timing. I just stumbled across the Marathon2500 Project: “Commemorating the 2,500-year anniversary of The Battle of Marathon. Free phone/web-based lectures, reading groups & more”. While I have missed the lectures by Paul Cartledge, Peter Krentz, Victor Davis Hanson, and Thomas Harrison, the podcasts are available at […]
This post looks at Chapters 1 through 83 of Book Five, covering the end of the one-year truce, the second battle of Amphipolis, and the beginning of the “false peace”. All quotes come from the Thomas Hobbes translation. As usual with Thucydides, he has packed a lot of information into a short passage. I will […]