A Commentary on Thucydides: Volume III: Books 5.25-8.109 [Hardcover]

Simon Hornblower (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 25, 2009 | ISBN-10: 019927648X | ISBN-13: 978-0199276486

This is the third and final volume (Vol. I 1991, Vol. II 1996) of a historical and literary commentary on the history of the first 20 years of the twenty-seven-year 'Peloponnesian War' (between the Athenians and Spartans and their respective allies) written by the great fifth-century BC historian Thucydides. The present volume of commentary covers the ten closely-narrated years 421-411 BC, and nearly half of the total of eight 'books' (subdivisions) of Thucydides' work. It includes one of the most famous sections of ancient Greek literary writing, the lengthy and supremely dramatic account of the disastrous Athenian expedition against Sicily (415-413) in Books 6 and 7; but also the Melian Dialogue (Book 5), a notorious document of Athenian imperialism; and the account of the oligarchic revolution at Athens in 411 (Book 8). All Greek is translated. There is a thematic General Introduction and two Appendixes.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"In short, regardlesss of the angle from which students and scholars come to Thucydides, they will find stimulating material in Hornblower's comments, which both reflect and encourage the disciplinary flexibility of current Thucydidean studies." --New England Classical Journal

About the Author

Simon Hornblower is Professor of Classics and Grote Professor of Ancient History at University College London, where he has taught for ten years. He is a Fellow of the British Academy.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 1107 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (January 25, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 019927648X
• ISBN-13: 978-0199276486
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.6 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,415,680 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

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5.0 out of 5 stars Magisterial ..., October 31, 2011

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Corvus "Maty" (Penticton Canada) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: A Commentary on Thucydides: Volume III: Books 5.25-8.109 (Paperback)

This is not a book that one takes along for some light holiday reading. Firstly because the weight would seriously affect your baggage allowance, and secondly because the price would seriously affect your available spending money.

However, if you want to study Thucydides in any great depth, then unless you know your way around an app.crit. or have the equally good, but now somewhat dated commentary by Dover, this book is not only valuable, but indispensable.

It's heavy going, even if you are familiar with ancient Greek, but it makes clear not just what Thucydides was getting at, but how he achieved the effects he does. In short this commentary covers the book not just as history but also as literature.

Perhaps the only shortfall I discovered is that Hornblower seems surprised that certain characters are re-introduced in full in the books dealing with the Athenian expedition to Sicily. He takes this as a literary device, whereas I'd assume that because books were rare and expensive in ancient Greece, Thucydides had simply taken into account that the story of the expedition is a self-contained narrative which might have been reproduced separately from the rest of the text.