Major Works

• The Peloponnesian War

  - Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War, trans. S. Lattimore. New York: Hackett Publishing Co., 1998.
  Review: Thucydides’ The Peloponnesian War mixes tragedy and intellection, profound emotion and painstaking analysis. Steven Lattimore has met the most daunting challenge to a translator of Thucydides, which is to provide a sense of this combination.… More

Commentary

• 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 Just and the advantageous in Thucydides: The Case of the Mytilanean Debate”

  - Orwin, Clifford, “The Just and the advantageous in Thucydides: The Case of the Mytilanean Debate”, The American Political Science Review, vol. 78, no. 2, 1984, 485-495.

• Studies in Platonic Political Philosophy

  - Strauss, Leo, “Preliminary Observations on the Gods in Thucydides’ Work,” Studies in Platonic Political Philosophy Chicago: U. of Chicago Press, 1985.
  One of the outstanding thinkers of our time offers in this book his final words to posterity. Studies in Platonic Political Philosophy was well underway at the time of Leo Strauss’s death in 1973. Having chosen the title for the book, he selected the… More

• “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 Rebirth of Classical Political Rationalism

  - Strauss, Leo, “The Meaning of Political History,” The Rebirth of Classical Political Rationalism, ed. T. Pangle Chicago: U. of Chicago Press, 1989.
  Review: This concise and accessible introduction to Strauss’s thought provides, for wider audience, a bridge to his more complex theoretical work. Editor Pangle has gathered five of Strauss’s previously unpublished lectures and five hard-to-find… More

• “Piety, Justice and the Necessity of War: Thucydides’ Delian Debate”

  - Orwin, Clifford, “Piety, Justice and the Necessity of War: Thucydides’ Delian Debate”, The American Political Science Review, vol. 83, no. 1, 233-239, 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

• “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

• 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

• “The Illusion of Power and the Disruption of Moral Norms: Thucydides’ Critique of Periclean Policy”

  - Monoson, Susan, “The Illusion of Power and the Disruption of Moral Norms: Thucydides’ Critique of Periclean Policy,” The American Political Science Review, Vol. 92, no. 2, 285-297, 1998.
  This analysis of Thucydides “History of the Peloponnesian War” focuses on his treatment of Pericles. The ancient historian’s use of antithesis is examined to appreciate his style and to understand his political philosophy.

• 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

• 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 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

• Commentary on Thucydides: Book 3

  - Charles F. Smith, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 3
  First Entry: Third Peloponnesian Invasion of Attica. Πελοποννήσιοι καὶ οἱ ξύμμαχοι: designation for the whole Peloponnesian alliance, as in c. 26.1, 4; ii. 47. 4; 71. 1; iv. 2. 2. For Πελοποννήσιοι alone in… More

• Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5

  - Harold North Fowler, Commentary on Thucydides: Book 5
  First Entry: Chapters 1-24: The tenth year of the war The Athenians for religious reasons drive the Delians from their island. αἱ σπονδαὶ διελέλυντο: the truce was at an end, but no warlike operations are recorded until Cleon led the… More