Since antiquity Book 8 of Thucydides' History has been considered an unpolished draft which
lacks revision. Even those who admit that the book has some elements of internal coherence
believe that Thucydides if death had not prevented him would have improved many chapters or
even the whole structure of the book. Consequently while the first seven books of the History
have been well examined through the last two centuries the narrative plan of Book 8 remains an
obscure subject as we do not possess an extensive and detailed presentation of its whole
narrative design. Vasileios Liotsakis tries to satisfy this central desideratum of the
Thucydidean scholarship by offering a thorough description of the compositional plan which in
his opinion Thucydides put into effect in the last 109 chapters of his work. His study
elaborates on the structural parts of the book their details and the various techniques
through which Thucydides composed his narration in order to reach the internal cohesion of
these chapters as well as their close connection to the rest of the History. Liotsakis offers
us an original approach not only of Book 8 but also of the whole work since his observations
reshape our overall view of the History.
