The Peloponnesian War

By any standard, the dominant theme of the text is a critical presentation of the history of the Peloponnesian war. Indeed, the tight focus on the war (coupled with a rigorous standard of investigation) is the very reason the text has persisted for two and a half thousand years. This theme is highlighted by several narrative components, including a strict and defined chronology, a neutral point of view, and a nearly complete discounting of supernatural causative agents. While Book One does consider a period of roughly fifty years prior to the outbreak of war, it retains a tight focus on political and military events which Thucydides deems contributing factors to the war—generally, the building of the Athenian empire and the Spartan response. Books Two through Eight are tightly focused on events in the war and, with rare exceptions, do not divagate from a strict...