The Peloponnesian War, Donald Kagan, c. 2003

Donald Kagan: Sterling Professor of Classics and History at Yale University. His four-volume History of the Peloponnesian War is the leading scholarly work on the subject. So, I guess here he condensed it to one volume for the "general" public.

The introduction begins: "For almost three decades at the end of the fifth century B. C., the Athenian Empire fought the Spartan Alliance in a terrible war that changed the Greek world and its civilization forever."

As I read that, and having just completed a bit of reading on the Persian war, it dawned on me that for memory purposes, one could argue the Greek / Persian was much like our own Revolutionary War; and then the Peloponnesian War much like our own US Civil War.

The introduction continues: "Only a half-century before [the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War] the united Greeks, led by Sparta and Athens, had fought off an assault by the mighty Persian Empire, preserving their independence by driving Persia's armies and navies out of Europe and recovering the Greek cities on the coasts of Asia Minor from its grasp."

Even the Persian army and the Persian navy could be easily compared to the Red Coats, the British Army, and the British Navy, second to none at the time of the American revolution. Perhaps now I might remember the sequence of events and the importance of these events in the Near East.

The author compares the Peloponnesian War with World War I in terms of devastation and importance.  (In the Peloponnesian War, Sparta "won," and replaced Athenian democracy with Thirty Tyrants in a puppet government, subservient to Sparta.)

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Most important source, by far, of our knowledge of the war: the history written by war's contemporary and participant -- Thucydides. His account ended mid-sentence, seven years before the end of the war.

There is way to much to write but this is THE reference book for the Peloponnesian War.

It has an introduction, seven parts, and a conclusion.

Part I: The Road To War

Chapter One: the great rivalry, 479 - 439

Part II: Pericles' War

Starts with chapter five.

Part III: New Strategies

Starts with chapter eleven.

Part IV: The False Peace

Starts with chapter sixteen (the peace unravels, 421 - 420)

Part V: The Disaster in Sicily

Starts with chapter twenty (the decision, 416 - 415)

Part VI: Revolutions in the Empire and in Athens

Starts with chapter twenty-six (after the disaster, 413 - 412)

Part VII: The Fall of Athens

Starts with chapter thirty-three (the restoration, 410 - 409)

Conclusion

The author compares the Peloponnesian War with World War I in terms of devastation and importance.