Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface and acknowledgements
- Chronology 545–323 BC
- List of maps
- Maps
- 1 The text
- 2 Writing power: Athens in Greece 478–435
- 3 Explaining the war: stated reasons 435–432
- 4 Explaining the war: true reasons 432
- 5 Judgements 431–430
- 6 Absent strategies 430–428
- 7 Speech and other events 428–427
- 8 Meaning and opportunity 426–424
- 9 Necessities 424
- 10 Interests 423–421
- 11 Emotion in deed 420–416
- 12 Purposes and decisions 415
- 13 Character and circumstance 414–413
- 14 One war 413–411
- 15 Back to the present
- Synopsis of the text by book and year
- Further reading
- References
- Index
Synopsis of the text by book and year
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2014
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface and acknowledgements
- Chronology 545–323 BC
- List of maps
- Maps
- 1 The text
- 2 Writing power: Athens in Greece 478–435
- 3 Explaining the war: stated reasons 435–432
- 4 Explaining the war: true reasons 432
- 5 Judgements 431–430
- 6 Absent strategies 430–428
- 7 Speech and other events 428–427
- 8 Meaning and opportunity 426–424
- 9 Necessities 424
- 10 Interests 423–421
- 11 Emotion in deed 420–416
- 12 Purposes and decisions 415
- 13 Character and circumstance 414–413
- 14 One war 413–411
- 15 Back to the present
- Synopsis of the text by book and year
- Further reading
- References
- Index
Summary
The asterisked sections in this synopsis are those I do not discuss in any detail. Although not central to my argument, all contribute to Thucydides' narrative and some are of considerable historical, military and literary interest.
Book 1
Introduction [1.1–23.3]
Reasons for writing [1.1]
Early history of Greece [1.2–19]
Aims and methods [1.20–2]
Importance of this war [1.23.1–3]
Background to the war [1.23.4–46]
Causes of the war [1.23.4–6]
Epidamnos and Corcyra [1.24–55]
Potidaea [1.56–66]
First meeting of Peloponnesian league [1.67–88]
‘Fifty years’ of Athenian power [1.89–118]
Second meeting of Peloponnesian league [1.119–25]
Spartan ultimatum and Pericles’ response [1.139–46]
Book 2
First year of the war, 431–430 First year of the war, 431–430
Outbreak of war [2.1]
Thebans attack Plataea [2.2–6]
Preparations and alliances on both sides [2.7–17]
Peloponnesians invade Attica [2.18–32]
* Corinthians active in west [2.33]
Pericles’ funeral speech at Athens [2.34–2.47.1]
Second year of the war, 430–429 [2.47.2–70]
Peloponnesians invade Attica [2.47.2]
Plague at Athens [2.47.3–54]
Spartan campaigns and Pericles’ response [2.55–64]
Thucydides’ assessment of Pericles and Athens’ eventual defeat [2.65]
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Thucydides on PoliticsBack to the Present, pp. 241 - 246Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2014