Thucydides called his account of two decades of war between Athens and Sparta "a possession for all time," and indeed it is the first and still the most famous work in the Western historical tradition. Considered essential reading for generals, statesmen, and liberally educated citizens for more than 2,000 years, The Peloponnesian War is a mine of military, moral, political, and philosophical wisdom.

However, this classic book has long presented obstacles to the uninitiated reader. Written centuries before the rise of modern historiography, Thucydides' narrative is not continuous or linear. His authoritative chronicle of what he considered the greatest war of all time is rigorous and meticulous, yet omits the many aids to comprehension modern readers take for granted -- such as brief biographies of the story's main characters, maps and other visual enhancements, and background on the military, cultural, and political traditions of ancient Greece.

Robert Strassler's new edition amends these omissions, and not only provides a new coherence to the narrative overall but effectively reconstructs the lost cultural context that Thucydides shared with his original audience. Based on the venerable Richard Crawley translation, updated and revised for modern readers, The Landmark Thucydides includes a vast array of superbly designed and presented maps, brief informative appendices by outstanding classical scholars on subjects of special relevance to the text, explanatory marginal notes on each page, an index of unprecedented subtlety and depth, and numerous other useful features. Readers will find that with this edition they can dip into the text at any point and be immediately oriented with regard to the geography, season, date, and stage of the conflict.

In any list of the Great Books of Western Civilization, The Peloponnesian War stands near the top. This handsome, elegant, and authoritative new edition will ensure that its greatness is appreciated by future generations.

This is the best edition of the first and best history of the war between Sparta and Athens. Both cities were in decline after this war. Very highly recommened.

The book arrived within the timeframe that was specified and the book was in good condition.

Quibbles with the translation used aside, I believe this book exemplifies how all history, especially ancient history, should be presented. Too often an author tells a story with place names that cannot be found on a map; even more common, no maps are offered in a book. It's worse with ancient texts, since many of the place names no longer exist.

This book, however, solves those issues. The reader can actually use the numerous maps to follow along with the history. When I first ran across this book I was almost stunned when I realized that all history books up to this one could have been presented this way but weren't. I think the authors (and publisher) have done a great service to this classic text. And now that I see that they have released The Landmark Herodotus, I have even more hope that the classics will be re-released in the future in this more accessible format.

If you have even a passing interest in this topic, I would highly recommend this version of Thucydides. Presented in this format, the story of the Peloponnesian War becomes easy to follow and more interesting than ever.

Torture is how I'd describe trying the read through this book. Unlike Stassler's Landmark Herodotus, in which someone did a new easy to read translation, in this edition of Thucydides, Strassler uses a very old, cumbersome translation and makes some (probably very minor) changes--we are told.

The content, Thucydides' first hand account of the Peloponnesian War, kept me going, but it wasn't easy. There is an abundance of excellent maps and footnotes indicating where every anthill was located (I can't imagine reading Thucydides without knowing the geography), but the footnotes are otherwise totally devoid any higher level explanation of the text. This is also a serious shortcoming of the book.

There is a very good introduction and several short, well-written 2 to 4 page chapters at the end of the book on various themes, though what's sorely needed is some good explanation in the meat of the text. Unfortunately, reading another version of the text but relying on the Landmark edition for figuring out where the locations are is overly burdensome. The jumping from location to location in the text didn't bother me as far as being able to follow the action, though others did mention this as a problem--something they'd have to take up with Thucydides, not Strassler.

If you are reading this on your own I highly recommend an 18-CD lecture series put out by The Teaching Company on the Peloponnesian War that is fantastic. I highly recommend it, especially if you are reading Thucydides on your own.

Good luck!

You should buy the hardcover book and not the paperback edition of this book. The paperback edition falls apart when you read it. This translation of Thucydides's history of the Peloponnesian War is outstanding. The text has numerous maps that help the reader locate the areas Thucydides is writing about. I found Thucydides's use of the speeches to provide a better understanding of the key persons and the motives of the nations at war to be suberb. I urge the reader to pay particular to Pericles furneral speech after the first of the war and the Melian Dialogue[Book Five] This book has many lessons we can learn today. Buy It