Customer Reviews

The Peloponnesian War: Athens, Sparta, and the Struggle for Greece

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Ths history of western civilization really begins with the Greeks. Unfortunately also with the Greeks begins the tradition of civil wars, although Athens and Sparta might be considered as separate semi-independent states. The war, when looked at in detail bears a lot of common points with more modern wars:

For one thing, the continual wars meant that by the end both Athens, Sparta and the other city states were greatly damaged. Minor wars continued into the next century for about 70 years, then came Alexander.

Although this war is commonly called the Peloponnesian War, it's more proper name is the Second Peloponnesian War. As with the world wars, the first was not decisive.

Another point worth mentioning is that the Peloponneisan war began when a couple of allies of Athens and Sparta up along the Adriatic Sea began fighting. This is not too far from Sarajevo, where World War I began, and where the Bosnians, Croatians, etc. recently fought.

Finally, this was is the first where a major book was written to give the history of the war. This is the HISTORY OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR by Thucydides.

The author of this book was a high ranking general in the British Army. As such, he brings an insight to the war that is lacking in many of the other books. Highly Recommended.[...]

This is an insightful meticulous look at a key pivotal moment in history, the twenty-seven year (with some interim periods of peace during the period) war between democratic Athens and totalitarian Sparta for supremacy of the Mediterranean. The work can stand alone but appears to be a wonderful companion piece to Nigel Bagnall's Punic War treatise and not as coffee table book ends, but as an insightful pair that armchair historians will appreciate. Though aimed at military historical aficionados, the late Mr. Bagnall goes into immense at times excruciating (at least to this reviewer) detail of what happened and to a degree why. For instance, readers get a microscopic look at how the Sparta blockade worked to cut off Athenian supply lines in spite of the latter having naval superiority. Most interesting is the lessons learned from this Greek tragedy that apply today as the Athenian democratic leaders forced the confrontation in an attempt to insure the dominance in the region against their rival (much different than what is taught in school). Clearly targeting a specific audience, the PELOPONNESIAN WAR is a well written dissertation on a critical relevant period that impacted the western world we know today.

Harriet Klausner

Bagnall reminds us in this lively history of a long ago war that there are timeless precepts in warmaking. He describes the myriad Greek city states and how they rallied magnificently to draw with and then defeat the Persians. But we also see an interminable fratricidal conflict within the Hellenes.

Unlike most history books, which are written by professional historians, Bagnall warns us upfront that he is not. Instead, he writes from the vantage of a professional soldier that he was for most of his life. Consequently, the book has frequent allusions between events in those distant days and those of the First and Second World Wars and subsequently into the Cold War. This is given at several levels. Strategic, operational and tactical. He does not explicitly say this in his narrative. But the analysis he gives us might well have come from a kreigspeil (wargame) that a bunch of NATO officers took part in.

At the tactical level, he compares the Persian and occasional Greek cavalry and what they could accomplish with modern tank forces. A close analogy. We are also reminded that "train hard to fight easy" was true then and now. And that suprise and deception can often still be the greatest advantages.

Thoughtfully, the book has several good maps of the theatre of operations. The only lack is that perhaps some of the battles could have been shown in extra maps. For those readers unfamiliar with the fractal Greek archipelago and the eastern Med, there might be constant to-and-fro from the text to the main maps, as you try to follow the battle descriptions.

On an aside, do you also read science fiction? Jack McDevitt wrote a wonderful "A Talent for War". Set in the far future of spacefaring humans going to war against a large alien empire. The latter is modelled on the Persians. While the humans are largely divided into small planet states, aka. the Greeks. And the narrative explicitly harks back to the Peloponnesian War.

Sir Nigel Bagnall was a British military officer during the mid-to late twentieth century rising to become Chief of the General Staff. After an extraordinary military career, he began a second career as a writer during which he wrote two volumes in ancient military history. This work was his last book which was published posthumously. His first work, The Punic Wars, which will be reviewed later, focused on the war between Rome and Carthage; this work focuses on the even earlier conflict, the Peloponnesian War. This famous conflict between the two most famous city-states of Ancient Greece, Athens and Sparta, is a conflict that is at best really confusing, and unfortunately this book does not succeed in making it less confusing. As a historian telling a tale, one must decide if he or she is to proceed chronologically or categorically, most historians do some of both but Bagnall leans a little too heavily with a categorical focus.

The first forty-five pages of the book are historical notes that deal with all the Greek cities that participated in the conflict. In doing this he should have limited these brief histories up to the start of the rest of the book instead of the roles that each city played during the conflict. Sir Nigel might have been better served scraping the whole forty-five pages and instead give us a one-page timeline in bullet points in order to give a clear picture to his reader about how this whole event happened. Also, we do not arrive to the actual Peloponnesian War into chapter 6 starting on page 131! The earlier Greek wars with Persia dominated the first four chapters, I understand how a historian might feel that one event cannot be explained without really explaining an earlier event, but in doing so he over explains somethings and under explains others. For example, an explanation into the forming of the Delian League and how Athens itself became corrupted with power transforming the League it into an Athenian Empire that was ruthless--to say the least--to dissenters, is confusing. How central figures played role in the war and the events leading up to it deserves more attention than it gets. I realize that Bagnall was a military historian and not a political one, but his take on Pericles is so choppy and out of order that at times it is difficult to put into context.

One of the strengths in the book is how Bagnall uses his own knowledge of military history, plus what he saw in his own career to help compare and contrast the Peloponnesian War to more commonly understood historical events, such as World War II or the Cold War, to increase the readers understanding of this ancient conflict.

This is an okay book but it is more suited for someone who understands a good deal of the material already, such as a person with a focus of study on ancient or military history. I would not recommend it for the average reader wanting to learn about ancient Greece for the first time since public school.