History of the Peloponnesian War

Thucydides’ account of the war between Athens and Sparta, covering events from 431 to 411 BCE. It combines a chronological narrative with speeches and explanations of political motives.

Archidamian War: The first phase of the Peloponnesian War, fought from 431 to 421 BCE between Athens and Sparta and their allies. Thucydides opens with Spartan invasions of Attica and Athenian naval strategy.
Peloponnesian League: A military alliance led by Sparta that united many cities in the Peloponnese and central Greece. Its members supplied the coalition opposing Athens and its allies.
Thucydides: An Athenian historian and general who wrote an account of the Peloponnesian War. His firsthand experience and analytical choices define the work’s narrative and evidence.
Corcyraean expedition: The Athenian intervention in a conflict between Corinth and its colony Corcyra in 433 BCE. Thucydides identifies the alliance dispute as one of the conflict’s immediate precursors.
Thucydides’ unfinished ending: The surviving account of the Peloponnesian War, which breaks off during events of 411 BCE. Its abrupt stop leaves the war’s final years outside Thucydides’ narrative.
Plague of Athens: A devastating epidemic that struck Athens beginning in 430 BCE during the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides records its symptoms and its effects on Athenian society and military fortunes.
Delian League: An alliance founded under Athenian leadership to resist Persia, later transformed into an Athenian empire. Its tribute and fleet explain Athens’ capacity to wage war far from Attica.
Pericles: An Athenian statesman who led the city during the opening years of the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides presents his strategy and political authority as central to Athens’ early conduct.
Battle of Sybota: A 433 BCE naval battle between Corinth and Corcyra, with Athenian ships intervening. The encounter intensified the Corinthian-Athenian hostility described before the war’s outbreak.
Thucydides’ speeches: Reported speeches in Thucydides’ history, composed according to what circumstances required and what seemed appropriate. Their relationship to verbatim testimony remains central to interpreting the work’s evidence.

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