The Peloponnesian War took place in the 5th Century BC. This war was fought between Athens and
Sparta - at the time the two most powerful city-states in ancient Greece. The Peloponnesian War
reshaped the ancient Greek world made a significant power shift in ancient Greece favoring
Sparta. It caused the total regional decline and marked the dramatic end to the fifth century
BC and the golden age of Greece. Ancient Greek warfare originally a limited and formalized
form of conflict was transformed into an all-out struggle between city-states complete with
atrocities on a large scale. Shattering religious and cultural taboos devastating vast swathes
of countryside and destroying whole cities the Peloponnesian War marked the dramatic end to
the fifth century BC and the golden age of Greece. This book provides a thorough insight into
this period of the history of ancient Greece and this devastating conflict through the work of
the prominent modern historian J. B. Bury as well as the most important contemporary sources -
History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides and Hellenica by Xenophon. Content: -
Introduction - The History of the Peloponnesian War (by J.B. Bury) - Primary Sources - The
Peloponnesian War (by Thucydides) - Hellenica: The Final Years of the War Its Aftermath (by
Xenophon) - The History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides is widely considered to be a
classic and regarded as one of the earliest scholarly works of history. - Hellenica by Xenophon
is direct continuation of Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War. There is virtually no
transition between the two works to the extent that the opening words of Hellenica are
translated as After this or sometimes Following these events. The Hellenica recounts the last
seven years of the Peloponnesian war as well as its aftermath.
