Thucydides, an Athenian, wrote the history of the war between the Peloponnesians and the Athenians, beginning his account at the very moment hostilities commenced. He believed this would prove to be a...

Even today, many regions of Greece still maintain these ancient customs—the Ozolian Locrians, the Aetolians, the Acarnanians, and that part of the mainland. Among these mainland peoples, the practice ...

The islanders were also notorious pirates. These were Carians and Phoenicians who had colonized most of the islands, a fact proven by later evidence. When Athens purified Delos during this war, all th...

Agamemnon ruled a land-based empire; without naval power, he could not have controlled any islands except those nearest the mainland (which would have been few in number)....

Even after the Trojan War, Greece remained caught up in migrations and resettlement, unable to achieve the stability necessary for development. The delayed return of the Greeks from Troy sparked numer...

As the power of Greece expanded and the pursuit of wealth became increasingly important, state revenues grew substantially. This economic growth led to the establishment of tyrannies nearly everywhere...

The naval forces of the Greeks during the period I have outlined were as I have described them. Despite their relative weakness, these fleets represented the greatest source of power for those who dev...

When the Corcyraeans learned of these preparations, they sent a delegation to Corinth, accompanied by envoys from Sparta and Sicyon whom they had convinced to join them. They demanded that Corinth wit...

However, your true policy should be to give us open support and assistance. The benefits of this approach, as we stated at the outset of our address, are numerous. We'll highlight what is perhaps the ...

During this time, the Potidaeans dispatched ambassadors to Athens, hoping to persuade the Athenians not to take any hostile action against them. They also sent representatives to Sparta along with the...

The Athenians had immediately constructed and manned fortifications on the isthmus side of the wall. However, they built no fortifications on the Pallene side, as they didn't believe they had sufficie...

After these events, the Plataeans dispatched a messenger to Athens, returned the Theban dead under a truce, and reorganized their city to best handle the current crisis. The Athenians, who had receive...

During this period, the Athenian fleet of one hundred ships continued its operations around the Peloponnese. After capturing Sollium, a Corinthian possession, they handed over both the town and its su...

When the Peloponnesians discovered this, they wove clay into reed frameworks and threw these into the gaps that had formed in their siege mound, hoping to give it stability and prevent it from being w...

When the Acarnanians found themselves under attack by a large land army and threatened by an enemy fleet from the sea, they made no unified attempt to resist. Instead, each community stayed to defend ...

During this time, the fleet from Corinth and its allies in the Crisaean Gulf, which was supposed to coordinate with Cnemus and prevent the coastal Acarnanians from joining their inland compatriots, fo...

The Athenians, arranged in battle formation, sailed in circles around their enemies, forcing them to draw their formation ever tighter. They repeatedly swept past, feigning immediate attack, but had b...

The Spartans now dispatched three commissioners to their fleet under Cnemus—Timocrates, Brasidas, and Lycophron—with instructions to prepare for another engagement with better results, and not to allo...

Peloponnesians, while our recent engagement may have left some of you apprehensive about the coming battle, there are no legitimate grounds for such fear. As you're aware, we had minimal preparation f...

This was how Phormio rallied his men. When the Peloponnesians realized the Athenians would not enter the gulf and narrows—where they hoped to trap them—they set sail at dawn. Arranged four ships abrea...

During that winter, after the Peloponnesian fleet had dispersed, the Athenian forces stationed at Naupactus under Phormio's command sailed along the coast to Astacus. They disembarked and marched inla...

The Peloponnesian siege wall was constructed in this manner: It comprised two parallel lines encircling the city—one facing the Plataeans, the other defending against any external attack from Athens—s...

When Teutiaplus's words failed to persuade Alcidas, some of the Ionian exiles and the Lesbians who were with the expedition began pressing him with an alternative plan. Since his original proposal see...

During the same summer, following the subjugation of Lesbos, the Athenians launched an expedition under Nicias, son of Niceratus, against the island of Minoa. This island lay just off Megara and serve...

By the fourth or fifth day after the oligarchs had been transferred to the island, the revolution had reached this critical point when the Peloponnesian fleet arrived from Cyllene, where they had been...

The revolution's progress was marked by such bloodshed, and its impact seemed all the greater because it was among the first of its kind. Subsequently, one could say the entire Greek world was thrown ...