Peloponisian Wars
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Peloponisian Wars: "Thucydides, an Athenian, wrote the history of the
war between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians, beginning at the moment that
it broke out, and believing that it would be a great war and more worthy of
relation than any that had preceded it. This belief was not without its grounds.
"Thucydides, an Athenian, wrote the history of the war between the
Peloponnesians and the Athenians, beginning at the moment that it broke out, and
believing that it would be a great war and more worthy of relation than any that
had preceded it. This belief was not without its grounds. The preparations of
both the combatants were in every department in the last state of perfection;
and he could see the rest of the Hellenic race taking sides in the quarrel;
those who delayed doing so at once having it in contemplation. Indeed this was
the greatest movement yet known in history, not only of the Hellenes, but of a
large part of the barbarian world- I had almost said of mankind. For though the
events of remote antiquity, and even those that more immediately preceded the
war, could not from lapse of time be clearly ascertained, yet the evidences
which an inquiry carried as far back as was practicable leads me to trust, all
point to the conclusion that there was nothing on a great scale, either in war
or in other matters".
It is with these words that the great Greek historian Thucydides begins his
epic history "History of the Peloponnesian War". He documented the war
between Sparta and Athens, which lasted for 27 years between 431 and 404 BC. The
war was the largest the Greek world had known of up to this date, and
encompassed almost all of the Greek world, and came with a very high price...