The Peloponnesian War [Paperback]

Thucydides (Author), Steven Lattimore (Author, Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0872203948 | ISBN-13: 978-0872203945 | Publication Date: June 1998

The first unabridged translation into American English, and the first to take into account the wealth of Thucydidean scholarship of the last half of the twentieth century, Steven Lattimore's translation sets a new standard for accuracy and reliability. Notes provide information necessary for a fuller understanding of problematic passages, explore their implications as well as the problems they may pose, and shed light on Thucydides as a distinctive literary artist as well as a source for historians and political theorists.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Thucydides' The Peloponnesian War mixes tragedy and intellection, profound emotion and painstaking analysis. Steven Lattimore has met the most daunting challenge to a translator of Thucydides, which is to provide a sense of this combination. Written in clear American English that never oversimplifies the original, this translation will be useful both to the novice intent on learning 'what happened' and to the returning reader seeking to savor high points like the Funeral Speech of Pericles. -- David P. Tompkins, Temple University

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: Greek

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Product Details

• Paperback: 656 pages
• Publisher: Hackett Pub Co Inc (June 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0872203948
• ISBN-13: 978-0872203945
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #36,933 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #40 in Books > History > Ancient > Greece

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best rendition of Thucydides into English yet!, April 6, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (tucson, az) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Peloponnesian War (Hardcover)

Steven Lattimore is a master translator of a difficult author. Thucydides invented Athenian intellectual prose; his work was meant not merely to be recited but read and studied; hence he avoids the overly simplistic antitheses that are the hallmarks of forensic prose. He deliberately avoids the easy Ionic style characteristic of Herodotos whose prose is made easy by frequent repetition of etymoligically similar words. Thucydides, furthermore, invented argumentation in prose language (so far as we know). Hippocrates may give conditions, symptoms, causes and cures; Thucydides makes generalizing propositions and argues for their truth value. He often uses sentences extending into what are in English whole paragraphs. All this makes his writing difficult to read and interpret and doubly difficult to translate. This translation overcomes the difficulties and yet leaves the reader the impression from the original that he is dealing with something well worth his effort. The many ponderous speeches that pepper the original are rendered in a refreshingly original manner. Lattimore has brought off a tour de force with this magnificent effort.

20 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Greatest Of All Greek Historians, August 9, 2005

By 

Michael A Neulander "Political Philosophy" (VA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Peloponnesian War (Paperback)

The greatest of all Greek historians was the Athenian general Thucydides (455-400 B.C.E.). Thucydides' classic work, "History Of The Peloponnesian War", provides us with the historical framework for 5th century Greece, a golden age of intellectual achievement and creativity rarely equaled in human history. This history is by far the best account of the bitter war between Athens and Sparta as well as the only surviving contemporary record of the rise of the Athenian empire. Thucydides as a master story teller doesn't just cover the battle scenes, he records the great political speeches of Pericles, leader of Athens, and Lysander leader of Sparta with great acumen. He is recognized as the first historian to actually go and get eyewitness accounts, visit battlefieilds and research documents and records. This work took him over 20 years and it shows!

The lessons he teaches about imperial over reaching and unreasonable peace settlements are prescient today as they were during his times. President Woodrow Wilson, read this book on his voyage across the Atlantic to the Versailles Peace Conference and vociferously fought the other Allies in making unreasonable demands of the Germans. Wilson learned the dangers that the world would be placed in by backing the Germans into a corner politically and economically from Thucydides book.

I recommend this timeless classic to anyone who is interested in political philosophy, and history. I also recommend you read it with David Cartwright's "A Historical Commentary On Thucydides.

39 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thrilling reading, October 31, 2000

By 

Donald Steiny (Palo Alto, CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Peloponnesian War (Paperback)

I undertook the project of reading the Greek Classics with a bit of trepidation and found some translations that read like the King James Bible, pompus and barely recognizable as English. I could not put down Steven Lattimore's translation. The funeral oration of Perikles was so beautiful tears came to my eyes as I read it to my wife.

I liked that portion of the book so much that I researched it and discovered that I was not alone in being impressed by it, and that it is considered some of the greatest writing ever. I compared the same passage in several tranlations found most of the to use somewhat archaic words that do not quite have the impact that they do to a modern reader as the words in Lattimore's translation.