Customer Reviews

Thucydides: The Peloponnesian War Book II (Cambridge Greek and Latin Classics) (Bk.2) (Greek Edition)

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Thuc is generally acknowledged as being a difficult writer to read, especially for students only a few years into their studies, but this edition eases the reader into his style. Copious notes aid the reader with the more trying sentences and helpful "summaries" give an overview of important sections. I think I've read someone describing the treatment here of Perikles' Funeral Oration as a "tour de force" - and, considering Perikles' (or Thuc's?) at times bafflingly scattered sentence structure, it is certainly helpful to have someone such as this author to guide you along. I did come out of this experience with a bittersweet affection for Thuc, and it was partly due to this edition of the Greek text. J F Rusten knows his stuff and it's wonderful he's chosen to share that knowledge.

For an author with as small a core vocabulary as Thucydides, chewing this Greek can feel pretty tough. Sentences pile on to a dizzying length, many words come heavily loaded, and he can be awfully terse in stringing together several individual and important ideas in otherwise simple narrative. Thankfully, Rusten has done a very good job with the notes. At points I was hoping for more insight, and there are numerous references to Gomme's much fuller commentary where Rusten did not deem it worthwhile to spend anymore time. But his unique treatment of the funeral oration was superb and even if one were to discount everything else in the book it would be valuable to have for this alone.

Professor Rusten nearly equals Clyde Pharr in his presentation of Book II. The only advantage which Rusten does not provide is a vocabulary list. Commentary is helpful, if in the form of end notes, and fairly thorough. He presents a useful text for students of Attic Greek and to instructors of Thucydides. Either as an advanced [very] undergraduate Greek course or as part of an introductory graduate one, Rusten's edition is a valuable adjunct to the Loeb or the OCT in conjunction with the Crawley translation or the Landmark volume.

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.