Commentary

• Man in His Pride

  - Grene, David, Man in His Pride, Chicago: U. of Chicago Press, 1950.

• “Thukydides und Machiavelli.”

  - Reinhardt, Karl. "Thukydides und Machiavelli." In Reinhardt, Vermächtnis der Antike: Gesammelte Essays zur Philosophie und Geschichtsschreibung. Gottingen: Vandenhoek & Ruprecht, 1966.

• Thucydides on the Nature of Power

  - Woodhead, A. G. Thucydides on the Nature of Power. Martin Classical Lectures, 24. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1970.

• Chance and Intelligence in Thucydides

  - Edmunds, Lowell. Chance and Intelligence in Thucydides. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1975.

• The City and Man by Leo Strauss

  - Strauss, Leo. “On Thucydides' War of the Peloponnesians and the Athenians.” In The City and Man, 50–85. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978. Originally published 1964 by the University Press of Virginia.
  From the publisher: The City and Man consists of provocative essays by the late Leo Strauss on Aristotle’s Politics, Plato’s Republic, and Thucydides’ Peloponnesian Wars. Together, the essays constitute a brilliant attempt to use… More

• The Necessities of War: A Study of Thucydides’ Pessimism

  - Pouncey, Peter R.  The Necessities of War: A Study of Thucydides' Pessimism. New York: Columbia University Press, 1980.
  From the publisher: Peter Pouncey presents for us and for the gods the mind of Thucydides as an historian and writer. Pouncey gives us an amazing reading of Thucydides’ amazing reading of the confused experience of wartime events. He nails down for us… More

• Thucydides

  - Connor, W. Robert. Thucydides. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984.
  From the Publisher: This full-scale sequential reading of Thucydides’ history of the Peloponnesian War will be invaluable to the specialist and also to those in search of an introduction and companion to the “Histories.” Moving beyond other… More

• “Form und Wandel des Machtdenkens der Athener bei Thukydides.”

  - Rengakos, Antonios. "Form und Wandel des Machtdenkens der Athener bei Thukydides." In Hermes Einzelschrift Heft 48. Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1984.

• “Justifying Empire” by Clifford Orwin

  - Orwin, Clifford, “Justifying Empire: The Speech of the Athenians at Sparta and the Problem of Justice in Thucydides,” The Journal of Politics, vol. 48, no. 1, 72-85, 1986.

• Thucydides and Athenian Imperialism

  - De Romilly, Jacqueline . Thucydides and Athenian Imperialism. Translated by Philip Thody. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Reprint. Salem, NH: Ayer, 1988.

• The Ambition to Rule: Alcibiades and the Politics of Imperialism in Thucydides by Steven Forde

  - Forde, Steven. The Ambition to Rule: Alcibiades and the Politics of Imperialism in Thucydides. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989.

• The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War (A New History of the Peloponnesian War)

  - Kagan, Donald. The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War (A New History of the Peloponnesian War) Ithaca: Cornell U. Press, 1989.
  From the publisher: The first volume of Donald Kagan’s acclaimed four-volume history of the Peloponnesian War offers a new evaluation of the origins and causes of the conflict, based on evidence produced by modern scholarship and on a careful… More

• The Archidamean War

  - Kagan, Donald, The Archidamean War (A New History of the Peloponnesian War), Ithaca: Cornell U. Press, 1990.
  This book, the second volume in Donald Kagan’s tetralogy about the Peloponnesian War, is a provocative and tightly argued history of the first ten years of the war. Taking a chronological approach that allows him to present at each stage the choices… More

• “Thucydides, Power Transition Theory, and the Causes of War.”

  - Lebow, Richard Ned. "Thucydides, Power Transition Theory, and the Causes of War," In Lebow and Barry S. Strauss, eds., Hegemonic Rivalry: From Thucydides to the Nuclear Age, pp. 125-65. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1991.
  Review: Strategists and international relations theorists, both of whom trace their lineage to Thucydides, meet classicists in an engaging debate over reinterpreting him and the relevance of his commentary on Athens and Sparta to present-day Soviet-American… More

• The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition (A New History of the Peloponnesian War)

  - Kagan, Donald. The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition, Ithaca: Cornell U. Press, 1991.
  Overview: Why did the Peace of Nicias fail to reconcile Athens and Sparta? In the third volume of his landmark four-volume history of the Peloponnesian War, Donald Kagan examines the years between the signing of the peace treaty and the destruction of the… More

• The Fall of the Athenian Empire (A New History of the Peloponnesian War)

  - Kagan, Donald. The Fall of the Athenian Empire, A New History of the Peloponnesian War, Ithaca: Cornell U. Press, 1991.
  Overview: In the fourth and final volume of his magisterial history of the Peloponnesian War, Donald Kagan examines the period from the destruction of Athens’ Sicilian expedition in September of 413 B.C. to the Athenian surrender to Sparta in the spring… More

• Love of Glory and the Common Good: Aspects of the Political Thought of Thucydides

  - Palmer, Michael. Love of Glory and the Common Good: Aspects of the Political Thought of Thucydides, Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 1992.  
  Overview: More clearly than any previous work on the subject, Michael Palmer’s Love of Glory and the Common Good defines the relationship between Periclean democracy and the decline in Athenian political life that followed the death of Pericles. The… More

• “Varieties of Realism: Thucydides and Machiavelli”

  - Forde, Stephen, “Varieties of Realism: Thucydides and Machiavelli,” Journal of Politics, vol. 54, no. 02, , 372-393, 1992.
  Review: Realists have dominated the postwar study of international politics, but they have not always taken seriously the problems of realism as a moral theory. One such problem is the difficulty of reconciling realism with devotion to ethics in any sphere,… More

• Thucydides, Hobbes, and the Interpretation of Realism

  - Johnson, Laurie. Thucydides, Hobbes, and the Interpretation of Realism, DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 1993.
  Table of Contents: List of Abbreviations Introduction Ch. 1 Human Nature 3 Hobbes 4 Thucydides 27 A Comparison of Hobbes and Thucydides on Human Nature 63 Ch. 2 Justice 72 Hobbes 73 Thucydides 98 A Comparison of Hobbes and Thucydides on Justice 140 Ch. 3… More

• Money, Expense, and Naval Power in Thucydides’ History 1-5.24

  - Kallet-Marx, Lisa. Money, Expense, and Naval Power in Thucydides' History 1-5.24, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993.
  Overview: Thucydides has been found guilty of indifference toward financial matters without a consideration of all the evidence. Now Lisa Kallet-Marx examines Thucydides’ treatment of financial resources by studying his comments on finance in the… More

• The Humanity of Thucydides by Clifford Orwin

  - Orwin, Clifford. The Humanity of Thucydides. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1994.
  From the Publisher: Thucydides has long been celebrated for the unflinching realism of his presentation of political life. And yet, as some scholars have asserted, his work also displays a profound humanity. In the first thorough exploration of the relation… More

• “The Use and Abuse of Thucydides in International Relations.”

  - Johnson-Bagby, Laurie M.  "The Use and Abuse of Thucydides in International Relations," International Organization 48:1, pp. 131-53, 1994.
  Overview: International relations scholars are prone to claiming that the ancient historian of the Peloponnesian War, Thucydides, is a realist of one kind or another. Paul Viotti and Mark Kauppi tell us that Thucydides “is usually credited with being the… More

• “Thucydides’ Critique of Realism”

  - Rahe, Paul.  “Thucydides' Critique of Realism,” Security Studies, vol. 5, no. 2, 105-141, 1995.

• “International Realism and the Science of Politics, Thucydides, Machiavelli and Neo-Realism”

  - Forde, Stephen, “International Realism and the Science of Politics, Thucydides, Machiavelli and Neo-Realism,” International Studies Quarterly 39, 141-160, 1995.

• Polis and Polemos: Essays on Politics, War,and History in Ancient Greece in Honor of Donald Kagan

  - Hamilton, Charles D., and Peter Krentz, eds. Polis and Polemos: Essays on Politics, War,and History in Ancient Greece in Honor of Donald Kagan, Claremont, CA: Regina Books, 1997.

• Pericles of Athens and the Birth of Democracy

  - Kagan, Donald. Pericles of Athens and the Birth of Democracy, New York: Free Press, 1998.
  Kagan is well known for his four-volume history of the Peloponnesian War ( The Outbreak of the Peloponnesian War , LJ 1/5/70; The Archidamian War , 1974; The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition, 1981; The Fall of the Athenian Empire, 1987, all Cornell… More

• Thucydides and the ancient simplicity: The Limits of Political Realism

  - Crane, Gregory. Thucydides and the ancient simplicity: The Limits of Political Realism,  Berkeley: The University of California Press, 1998.
  Overview: Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War is the earliest surviving realist text in the European tradition. As an account of the Peloponnesian War, it is famous both as an analysis of power politics and as a classic of political realism.… More

• Justice Among the Nations: on the moral basis of power and peace

  - Ahrensdorf, Peter and Pangle, Thomas.  Justice Among the Nations: on the moral basis of power and peace, Kansas: The University of Kansas, 1999.
  From the publisher: In the post-Cold War era, we have lost the clarity that once characterized our vision of international conflict. Foreign affairs are no longer defined solely by the ideological battles fought between capitalism and communism or by the… More

• “The fear of death and the longing for immortality: Hobbes and Thucydides on Human Nature and the Problem of Anarchy”

  - Ahrensdorf, Peter, “The fear of death and the longing for immortality: Hobbes and Thucydides on Human Nature and the Problem of Anarchy,” The American Political Science Review, vol. 94, no. 3,  579-593, 2000.
  Overview: Recent challenges to the modern secular state invite us to reexamine the arguments made by its theoretical founders, especially Hobbes. Hobbes argues that the desire for security is the most reliable and rational desire of our nature, and the state… More

• Money and the Corrosion of Power in Thucydides: The Sicilian Expedition and its Aftermath

  - Kallet, Lisa.  Money and the Corrosion of Power in Thucydides: The Sicilian Expedition and its Aftermath.  Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001.
  From the publisher: Wealth and power are themes that preoccupy much of Greek literature from Homer on, and this book unravels the significance of these subjects in one of the most famous pieces of narrative writing from classical antiquity. Lisa Kallet… More

• Thucydides and Internal War

  - Price, Jonathan J.  Thucydides and Internal War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
  From the Publisher: This book explains in detail Thucydides’ abstract model of internal war, and then shows how, by the terms of the model itself, Thucydides perceived and narrated the Peloponnesian War not as a conventional war but as an internal… More

• The Peloponnesian War by Donald Kagan

  - Kagan, Donald. The Peloponnesian War. New York: Penguin Books, 2004.
  From the Publisher: For three decades in the fifth century B.C. the ancient world was torn apart by a conflict that was as dramatic, divisive, and destructive as the world wars of the twentieth century: the Peloponnesian War. Donald Kagan, one of the… More

• Thucydides’ War Narrative: A Structural Study

  - Dewald, Carolyn.  Thucydides’ War Narrative: A Structural Study.  Berkeley CA: University of California Press, 2005.
  Overview: As a sustained analysis of the connections between narrative structure and meaning in the “History of the Peloponnesian War, “Carolyn Dewald’s study revolves around a curious aspect of Thucydides’ work: the first ten years of… More

• Thucydides: An Introduction for the Common Reader

  - Zagorin, Perez.  Thucydides: An Introduction for the  Common Reader.  Princeton: Princeton University Press,  2005.
  Overview: This book is a concise, readable introduction to the Greek author Thucydides, who is widely regarded as one of the foremost historians of all time. Why does Thucydides continue to matter today? Perez Zagorin answers this question by examining… More

• Thucydides: The Reinvention of History

  - Kagan, Donald. Thucydides: The Reinvention of History, New York: Penguin Books, 2010.
  From the publisher: Yale professor of classics Kagan thoroughly examines Thucydides’ life and work to successfully demonstrate that the Athenian historian was the first to utilize a truly professional (i.e., realistic and methodical) approach in recounting… More

• Commentary on Thucydides: Book 2

  - E.C. Marchant, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 2
  First Entry: ἄρχεται—not historic, but primary and connected with γέγραπται below. Thuc. means to say ‘what preceded (i.e. book I.) was an introduction: now begins (my account of) the war itself.’ Cf.ἀρξάμενος, I. 1, 1:… More

• Commentary on Thucydides: Book 1

  - Charles D. Morris, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 1
  Introduction THOUGH we have several ancient biographies of Thucydides,1 our trustworthy knowledge of the circumstances of his life rests almost exclusively on a few notices casually imparted by himself. Everything else that we are told of him either by his… More