Thucydides introduces himself and his method and provides overviews both of the Hellenic people across time and, more specifically, of the Peloponnesian War’s numerous inciting events, which began immediately following the end of the Persian War. Warner’s translation groups related chapters within each book under subheadings, though these subheadings do not appear in the original Greek text.īook 1 is the longest in the history and covers the broadest swath of time. To facilitate study of the text, scholars have developed a system of enumeration to correspond between the original Greek and translations: Each book is made up of sections of varying lengths that are called chapters. Though several of the books appear to be in-progress drafts, the eighth is thought to be the most incomplete, organizationally, and may have been a collection of notes. Scholars disagree about when the eight books that make up the history were composed, in particular whether they were written over the course of many years or after the war ended in 404.
This guide refers to the Penguin Classics edition translated by Rex Warner. Scholars note that Thucydides’ style is uniquely dense and complex and thus challenging to translate.
As with any ancient text, much about the work is contested and much remains unclear.
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