This edition of Thucydides is really excellent. There are maps and/or images of artifacts on almost every page, along with marginal summaries, and a lot of helpful appendices.

However, as I read it (over the course of a week), the book completely fell apart. Every twenty pages or so a large section of the text would break off and fall out of the book. It was horrifying. I've never read a book with such a terrible binding, and I had to dispose of it by the end since it was just a pile of separate sheets of paper.

Thank you for your timely service. The book was brand new and arrived in excellent condition.

This is a superb edition of one of the greatest books ever written. However, there is a MAJOR CAVEAT: the paperback edition has a TERRIBLE BINDING, and will fall apart on you as you read it, guaranteed. This happened to every student in our class. Such a fantastic edition of a classic should obviously be sewn, rather than glued, but the publisher has apparently tried to cheap it out with an inferior glued binding which, I repeat, WILL NOT LAST. We wrote the publisher as a group, but did not receive an adequate reaponse. By all means, use this edition, but if you want to keep it, BUY THE HARDCOVER.

Don't let the fact this book was written over 2,000 years ago sway you from reading it! I'll admit I was hesitant about reading Thucydides because I'm not a big fan of non-fiction or a serious military history buff, and more specifically, was never that interested in ancient Greek history.

However, after I happened to watch the movie 300 (I know, that movie is basically all fantasy and action Hollywood style, but it was still good!) I became instantly fascinated by the history behind the movie and started buying books on the ancient Greeks to learn more.

Prior to investing the money into purchasing this version of the History of the Peloponnesian War, I borrowed a different version at the library that didn't include maps or appendices to explain about ancient Greek society and life. That was a wrong move for a novice! It is imperative that you read Thucydides with lots of maps of ancient Greece so you can follow the narrative of battles taking place around Attica, Peloponnese, and surrounding islands. It is easier to understand what is going on if you have good maps. The Landmark Thucydides was very helpful in that regard. There are enough maps scattered throughout the book, in addition, with side margins and footnotes that I felt were very helpful for the beginner. The book is quite hefty so you'll have a hard time lugging it around, but all you really need is a quiet spot to settle down and read.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that this book didn't really read as a "history book". It had a story-like quality and feel to the narrative that I enjoyed immensely and I found myself quickly enthralled. At times I had to stop and remember that this author has been dead and gone for over 2,000 years. Thucydides' words literally came alive from the pages, and it was eerie how many things he observed so long ago still hold true today.

I have only read this translation (Crawley), and although it isn't written in a direct style of English, I found it was surprisingly easy to read. It took me a few pages to become accustomed to it, but I became so engrossed in Thucydide's narrative that it wasn't really an issue for me. I would recommend reading this book slowly, it's not meant to be read quickly, but to savor and ponder over what you have just read.

If you've ever had a passing interest in ancient Greek history, in particular ancient military battles, Thucydides would be a good starting point.

Like the Landmark Herodotus, this version of Thucydides; work is unparalleled. The maps and the notes, not to mention a brief synopsis of each chapter makes the work fit in its own context.
A must by for any ancient historian.

No, my title is not just playing off some "American Dream" story. Thucydides is considered to be the first moder historian. He wrote about the Greek wars, while studying human nature, and it produced this masterpiece which can honestly be considered a blueprint for all future wars and why people fight it because he was not just telling the "what's" of this great war, but the "why's." If you want to know the history of the Pelopennesian War, this book is for you. If you want to understand why people fight wars - throughout history - this book is for you. If you are a student of human nature, this book is for you.

A must have on the shelf of every student of history, philosophy, sociology, or liberal arts!

This edition of Thucydides is by far the best edition of any piece of classical writing I have ever come across. The maps are simply fantastic. This edition is especially impressive when compared against the Penguin edition which has maps that are simply horrible. Without good maps Thucydides is incomprehensible. With these maps the narrative is remarkably clear and surprisingly readable. The intro and appendices are impressive as well. The soft cover binding isn't that great (as others have pointed out) but that doesn't bother me.

This is an excellent edition. There are some quibbles with the translation, but that's to be expected.

The worst part of this book is the paperback binding! Almost everyone in my class had the pages begin to separate within the first few weeks of use.

Buy this edition, but get the hardcover.

Looking at the rating this book gets, there really is no reason to add my 5 stars to it, but I find that writing a review increasingly means countering some other reviewer's (perceived) unfairness, rather than adding yet another redundant cheer to the meriad praises presented here.

Case-in-point: one reviewer thought that the various place names became confusing. Perhaps, but what can be done? That's the way it happened. Personally, I found this edition's many maps very helpful in increasing my overall understanding of the geography of the many greek poleis that before were just names in various confusing texts. I also highly recommend that while reading this book, one keeps on hand a copy of "A Guide to the Ancient World" by Michael Grant (available here also) to look up the various cities and islands as they are mentioned to add dimension and a sense of immediacy to the narrative.

Another reviewer thought Thucydides' prose to be dry. I disagree. His historian's straight-to-the-point narrative style actually adds power to the events he describes, I feel, precisely because he isn't trying to play things up. Reality needs no embellishments. Book 7 describing the Athenian's failed invasion of Sicily actually becomes almost harrowing at one point because of this. Take Alkibiades, for instance. He comes across as a real A-hole, but not because of any colorizing on the part of Thucydides' narrative. Thucydides just relates what the man did, rarely delving into his motivations, and the actions speak for themselves.

My only complaint is a small one: the latinized transliterations (Laurium instead of Laureion, Mycalyssus instead of Mykalyssos, etc.). I also wonder about the accuracy of the various speeches recited here. I get the impression that they all have Thukydides' style, but that is my personal feeling (about a subject which various historians far more knowledgeable than I are still arguing about) and has nothing to do with the edition which I bought after comparing it to the others on the shelf. This is truly the finest one.

I figure that if one is interested in the subject matter, then it is a fascinating read. A general reader probably wouldn't purchase a book such as this. As for someone wanting to delve deeply into ancient history, the modern historians' works are essential, but eventually he will have to delve into the primary sources and make up his own mind.

Along with this book I also highly recommend Donald Kagan's "the Peloponnesian War" and Victor Davis Hansen's "a War Like No Other". Read these three and there is nothing else of significance on the subject of the Peloponnesian war, really.

Superb edition. You cannot get confused with this edition for every single place is mapped out and essays on e.g. Athenian politics and the Persian empire are provided in appendices. A must-have. A fine translation, too, both accurate and stately.

Horrible delievery, why do they even offer the super saver if it takes FOREVER to recieve the order. Terrible delievery service.

If you are seeking an in-depth understanding of the Peloponnesian War and are a serious student of ancient history, this may be a great edition of the Richard Crowley translation of Thucydides. If, however, you are just beginning to delve into the Greeks and this is your first reading of the History of the Peloponnesian War, I would suggest a less annotated edition. I place myself in the second category, and while I found it helpful at first to have all of the maps and footnotes, I soon found them distracting. I am the type of reader who feels like every time I hit a note I have to read it, and there were so many on some pages that it could take ten minutes just to read one page.

I was reading for scope, more than depth, and I wanted to get a sense of Thucydides' voice. About halfway through I ended up downloading the Crowley translation from Project Gutenberg and reading it on my handheld - which worked out great since I could refer back to the book when I needed a map or had a question in the text. I found I could follow what was happening without all of the notes with very little difficulty.

The Crowley translation, which is used in the Landmark Thucydides, is very readable and shines in the various orations throughout the work.

I wouldn't want to talk anyone out of buying this edition, it truly is we'll done, but at least consider a less annotated edition if this is your first time reading Thucydides, and then consider buying both.

Thucydides understood the importance of the events he both witnessed and took part in and for that reason he understood why others should know about them. It is quite remarkable to think that twenty-five hundred years later, Thucydides's account of the Peloponnesian War is still being widely read. But I suppose that's natural considering his account provides so much of the fairly limited evidence we have of the events of that tragic period. We can be thankful for his foresight and appreciation of educating those of us who came much later.

Strassler has put together a very accessible book on studying both Thucydides's own account (the most valuable part of the book) as well as adding to it with maps of the areas in question, notes, and appendices following the text that help illuminate some of the military, political, some social and economic aspects of the Greek world. Thucydides's account covers mainly the military side of the twenty-seven year long conflict known as the Peloponnesian War, although his account ends in 411 BC, some seven years before Athens's ultimate defeat. But his narrative gives us at least some important glimpses of other aspects of life in the Hellenic world at that time, though precious little especially on the social side.

There is so much to learn in this narrative, despite the horrendous conflict that engulfed nearly twenty-seven years between the two chief city-states, Athens and her allies versus Sparta and her allies. We learn very little of the author; he seems to believe that his part is very minor compared to everything else that occurred and therefore is not worth discussing. As others have noted, he seems not to have had a profound religious side, at least it seems the notions of oracles and omens and the likes aren't as widely discussed as others have written, e.g. Herodotus's Histories. The author displays a fairly balanced view of the conflict, though he was an Athenian.

The speeches that he includes are quite remarkable, though you have to doubt the veracity of all of these in terms of word for word accuracy, maybe some were conjured, but who can say for sure, we weren't there. It seems hard to find fault with his careful examination of events and his efforts to provide a fairly accurate account of that tragic war. He was a participant, and like any writer of history, is influenced by his own prejudices and his own experiences, to some extent at least. Without his account we would know far less.

There are many memorable and very human episodes that will strike you in this account, such as the effects of the Plague on Athens's population, the oratory of Pericles, the Athenian disaster at Sicily, the civil strife erupting between people who shared the same homeland, and so forth. You'll learn of the growth of the Athenian empire and the problems possessing an empire can lead to, the nature of the Spartan military, the strategies and battles fought, public leaders like Pericles, Hermocrates, Nicias, Cleon, Brasidas, Alcibiades and so many others.

Accounts like Thucydides's prove that human nature doesn't really change that much, despite all the evident technological, political, economic and cultural changes that have occurred, we still possess the same strengths and weaknesses innate to human nature from time immemorial. This account is invaluable and this edition by Strassler makes it imminently accessible. A true classic.

This is the Crawley translation with some modernization by the editor, Robert B. Strassler. I won't presume to say that it is the best translation; I have also read others and Crawley's is, in my opinion, at least very good. However, the other features of this edition make it excellent. Victor Davis Hanson's introduction is thoughtful and helpful. In the margins of the translation, Strassler has summarized each section of each chapter of each book. Every two or three pages, there is a map showing in detail the area, cities and other land and island features Thucydides refers to in each chapter or section. I find this to be very, very helpful and unique to this edition. Also, the eleven appendices, each written by recognized scholars, cover a number of helpful and interesting topics (e.g., Athenian Government in Thucydides, Spartan Institutions, Land and Trireme Warfare in Thucydides, Dialects and Ethnic Groups, Currency and Calendar and Dating Systems). Therefore, I highly recommend the Landmark edition.

While I am at it, I would also recommend Perez Zagorin's "Thucydides, An Introduction for the Common Reader."

Stirling Lathrop

As far as utility goes, this is a very good place to start for anyone who is interested in learning about the peloponnesian war directly from the primary source himself, Thucydides. The book is filled with maps and footnotes in almost every page, so that you'll never find yourself needing to look into an atlas in order to figure out what the heck is going on with who and where (a problem I had the first time I read the History).

On the other hand, I personally enjoyed Rex Warner's translation of Thucydides much more. Although Strassler does a good job of translating, it's still not quite as readable as it could have been. It's certainly not as much of a headache as Dryden's translations of Plutarch, but at times it can come close, and this takes away from the reading experience.

My recommendation is that you buy this guide for the maps and footnotes, and Warner's translation for the readability factor, in case you should ever find yourself unable to piece together a particular passage. All in all, though, it's still an exceptionally useful book.

I suffered through Thucydides many years ago in college and never understood what all the fuss was about. This was greatness for the ages? Please. The book was tedious and obscure, and it certainly didn't help when I was told how wonderful it is in the original Greek.

Strassler has done a wonderful thing. He's taken an old translation (19th century), done a bit of judicious editing, and made it sing. Pericles' funeral oration turns out be be extraordinary oratory. Thucydides himself turns out to be a clear and powerful writer. Strassler's excellent maps help bring the text to life - they are numerous and right there where you need them. Sometimes the almost exact the same map shows up again a couple of pages after its first appearance because the text on that page refers to a location on it - there's no flipping back and forth to find a map. Where the text mentions a location, Strassler gives us a map.

The footnotes are very helpful. I especially like the dates put at the top of every page - Thucydides doesn't offer much help with chronology, and those dates help keep everything in place. The index is very useful; it's what every index should aspire to be. The essays at the end of the book, which cover everything from local politics in Athens and Sparta to coinage to trireme warfare, are tremendously informative. I only wish some of them had been longer. All of this makes this edition of Thucydides a fine study tool.

At the heart of it we shouldn't forget Thucydides himself. His history is a powerful examination of war, why war is fought, how men behave in time of war. He shows clearly that the Peloponnesian war was a disaster for all Greeks and he shows why. The Greeks were extraordinary observers and describers of human nature, and their observations remain as sharp and relevant today as they ever were. It's his skill as an observer of his fellow men that gives Thucydides claim to being the best historian of all times. I once thought that the claim was so much puffery from classicists trolling for students, but Strassler makes me repent of that belief. This history is indeed great, a work for the ages, and Strassler has presented it in the best possible light.

Let's face it - Thucydides is not at all an easy read. Much of this work is hard to follow and (even in English) relies on colloquialisms that are not common to the general reader. Yet, with an array of maps, page headers outlining the dominant theme of each page, and notes in the sidebars further explaining corresponding paragraphs, this version of Thucydides is eminently readable. The book also has several excellent appendices that provide additional (and very useful) background material for understanding both Greek society of the time and various aspects of Greek warfare. Think of it as Thucydides with built-in CliffNotes. As such, this version of Thucydides is clearly the one for the general reader who wants to take on the task of reading this work.

The only weakness I found in this version is the epilogue, which could have been much more thorough in explaining the period from the end of Thucydides history to the final surrender of the Athens. Instead, the epilogue quickly glosses over the Ionian phase of the war and goes into subsequent history. Nevertheless, this is a book well worth having for anyone interested in the Peloponnesian War and wanting a firsthand account of the events therein.

This is the translation that corresponds most closely to Thucydides' notoriously difficult Greek. Certain sections, like Pericles' funeral oration in book II are in some ways untranslatable since any single translation obscures ambiguities that are present in the original text. However, the Landmark Thucydides comes the closest to the author's original language. Another nice thing about this edition is that it is heavily illustrated and annotated. These features make Thucydides' text concrete in an unusual way and will be particularly useful to the casual reader who is trying to get a broad picture of the events of the Peloponnesian war. This is the finest English language edition of Thucydides that I have seen.

I bought this text for a university course. Strassler's Thucydides came highly recommended by the lecturer, and I can see why. It uses the excellent Crawley translation and complements it with an insightful introduction, maps, timelines, helpful annotations and a wealth of appendices. Just to give you an idea, in a 750-odd page book, the original text only takes up about 500; all the rest is helpful supplementary information. If you're trying to decide on an edition of Thucydides' "The Peloponnesian War", this is by far your best bet. If you're just browsing for a read and are interested in war and the culture of conflict, why not read an account of one of the most significant conflicts of ancient times, written by someone closely involved in it? You'll find this piece of ancient wisdom as applicable today as it was back then. It seems mankind hasn't changed much in 2000 years...

Without a doubt, this is one of the greatest books ever written. Among the most incredible parts of it include Pericles' funeral oration. Most likely due to its fame though, this book is available in numerous editions. Out of all the editions I recommend this one for its accessability and convenience. Unlike other editions which simply give you the text, this edition is full of maps as well as short summaries of each paragraph. The maps are particularly helpful as they serve as a guide Greek geography, which is absolutely necessary to understand what is going on much of the time, but which many, including myself, are not familiar with. This edition takes care of that problem with detailed maps of many of the events which take place. While this book may be more costly than other editions, the extra cost is worth it. This edition will give you a much more fulfilling understanding of the Peloponnesian wars while allowing you to enjoy the text more than you would otherwise.

I thought I would hate this book. It is big and refers to lots of places we know very little about. But Strassler makes the whole text come alive. Plenty of maps and notes to clarify the obscure. Now it doesn't make any of the Peloponnesian War EASY to follow -- it was a long time in coming, and it was a very complex war, but the period shows how easy it can be to go to war even when one doesn't want to, and how hard it can be to get out of war after things like Honor, Fear, or percaptions of Public Interest are at stake.

I especially liked the appendices and definitive index, which made the complexities of this topic a bit easier to follow. Certainly a book I would recommend to bright high school seniors and to all who aspire to serve as officers in any Western military. (Why? Because Thucydides is very fair at depicting the Spartans and the Athenians, depicting their very human foibles, courage and personalities, and because it is amazing to see how many of the speeches of 2500 years ago seem as if they could be written for today's world. (I especially liked Cleon's speach, not because of what he said, but because I could imagine it being lifted by some Capitol Hill or White House speechwriter, and being read unwittingly by one of today's jingoistic politicians.))

What a magnificent job the editor did on this already great work. In addition to Thucydide's classic history, the editor added numerous maps, notes and other explainations to help the modern reader in following the Peloponnesian War narrative.

Thucydides is of course necessary reading for any historian whether at an undergraduate or graduate level. He established a standard of verification of facts and actions, unlike Herodotus whose great work included much myth and commonly accepted incorrect information. Thucydides had the admittedly added advantage of being an observer to a vast amount of the goings on in during this period being himself a soldier and then a general in the Athenian army.

Fine reading and, again, an excellent editing of the original work.

I found this book on sale in a bookstore in Nijmegen, Holland. It looked very appealing, I bought it, took it home with me and waited for several months before I read it. I am not a scholar, nor a historian, I am interested in history and in fact rather than fiction. The splendid appendices gave insight in much of the text and maps are a definite plus.

As for the book itself. The further along you get, the more you are drawn into it. It really has the aura of an eye witness account. But somehow Thucydides manages to go beyond mere history and trancend the story into a classic Greek drama, the rise and fall of Athens. By the time the Athean fleet sails for Sicily I realised his very factual style of writing had turned an historic event of over two thousand years ago into harsh everyday reality. Here's a man struggling with depicting a war he was part of, with losses that he himself felt, with the downfall of a country that was his.

After reading it, I read Livius. The difference to me is stunning. Whereas Livius writes from a very chauvinistic Roman viewpoint, Thucydides actually tried to write a factual account. Even more stunning that Livius didn't manage objectivity with events hundreds of years ago and Thucydides did with events in his own lifetime.

Read it as you would read a newspaper.

Recently, I've often seen the book misquoted and its authority misused, suggesting that few people actually read it.

Do yourselves a favour, buy it, put it on your bookshelves and for God's sake, read it.

I have to say this is a fantastic presentation of Thucydides although I have not read him in the original Greek and therefore am not qualified to pass judgement on the translation. But I also notice that Victor Hanson provided the bibliography rather than the author and no sources are quoted for the essays at the back and the bibliography is mostly secondary sources. Yes, this book is meant for the masses, but I would prefer an approach more similar to the Penguin Herodotus. Nevertheless, the maps are useful and the book is well worth reading.

I read this edition along with the Hobbes translation (Green, ed.) and despite having read through Thucydides several times before, Thucydides, despite claiming to write a completely objective history, the composition of the work shows through quite a bit. The narrative is not linear, with digressions, flashbacks, and other tropes which makes the book hard to follow at times. In any case, the events of the war are so complex, covering such a long time, and in so many theaters of operation, that there is no single way to give a coherent recounting of the events.

All the maps are very clean, freshly rendered and easy to read. In addition to a few omnibus maps in the back matter, there are many smaller maps throughout the book, each having only as many landmarks as are necessary to illuminate the particular passage. This turns out to be particularly helpful. One can find a place like Naupactus, (not obscured by too many dots and words and unclear print) and understand why it was so important for Athens to hold onto. The other editorial matter are also very helpful. Using the index and the notes, the reader can follow the stories of the people, places, and themes invovled.

If you are at all concerned about Ancient Greece, or history, this book is worth it, for the maps alone even if for nothing else.

The Classic Greeks created intellectual and cultural innovations in human associations that have had lasting impact on human society. One was the concept of democracy, a system of governance, "of the people, by the people, and for the people". Another was personal liberty - which according to Prof. Rufus Fears, is present today only in those nations whose political systems have received influences by the the ancient Greek model. Another contribution was the concept of writing an accurate and objective account of history - epitomized by Thucydides's Pelopponesian War.

As cited in the introduction, Thucydides was proud that he had written his history "not as an essay which is to win the applause of the moment, but as a possession for all time". Here, along with Herodotus, is the basic concept that underlies the work of all contemporary professional historians.

Pericles' Funeral Oration alone is worth many times the small price of this paperback book. Extracts of his evocation of the
Athenian Democracy sound as though they came from the U.S. Founding Fathers, not 2700 years ago:
"[Our] administration favors the many ionstead of the few;p this is why it is called a democracy. If we look to the laws, they afford equal justice to all in their private differences . . . ". This superb edition combines a lucid translation with many conveniences, such as capsule summaries in the margin, perfect for browsing, maps, sketches of Greek vessels, extensive index, conforming time tables among contemporary cultures and much more.