About the Author

Robert B. Strassler is an unaffiliated scholar whose articles have appeared in the Journal of Hellenic Studies. He lives in Brookline, Massachusetts.

Reviews

"This is the best book with which to start study of Thucydides and the Peloponnesian War. It presents the finest English translation. Its maps, scholarly appendices, and notes permit the beginner to understand the text and to move easily and at once to a higher level of study than has been possible up to now." -- Donald Kagan, author of On the Origins of War and Pericles of Athens

"Reading Thucydides remains an indispensable part of a liberal education. But this text has been wanting a useful English language, annotated version that would make it easier for the contemporary reader to encounter its brilliance and eloquence. Strassler's meticulous and imaginative achievement is as welcome as it is astonishing. Students of history and politics will be forever in his debt." -- Leon Botstein President, Bard College

"At last readers of The Peloponnesian War can have at their fingertips the background information they need to read the narrative with understanding." -- W. Robert Connor Director, National Humanities Center

"Thucydides knew that human nature was unlikely to change over time, and it is this awareness that has allowed his work to be, as he hoped it would, a 'possession for all time.' But even he did not imagine how much warfare and customs would have changed over 2,500 years, or how the differences between past and present practices would make his work difficult for modern readers to follow. This new edition helps make Thucydides accessible once again by providing readers with the maps and detailed background information they will need to understand the full significance of his work." -- Mary Lefkowitz, Andrew Mellon Professor in the Humanities, Wellesley College

"This is the best book with which to start study of Thucydides and the Peloponnesian War. It presents the finest English translation. Its maps, scholarly appendices, and notes permit the beginner to understand the text and to move easily and at once to a higher level of study than has been possible up to now." -- Donald Kagan, author of On the Origins of War and Pericles of Athens
"Reading Thucydides remains an indispensable part of a liberal education. But this text has been wanting a useful English language, annotated version that would make it easier for the contemporary reader to encounter its brilliance and eloquence. Strassler's meticulous and imaginative achievement is as welcome as it is astonishing. Students of history and politics will be forever in his debt." -- Leon Botstein President, Bard College
"At last readers of The Peloponnesian War can have at their fingertips the background information they need to read the narrative with understanding." -- W. Robert Connor Director, National Humanities Center
"Thucydides knew that human nature was unlikely to change over time, and it is this awareness that has allowed his work to be, as he hoped it would, a 'possession for all time.' But even he did not imagine how much warfare and customs would have changed over 2,500 years, or how the differences between past and present practices would make his work difficult for modern readers to follow. This new edition helps make Thucydides accessible once again by providing readers with the maps and detailed background information they will need to understand the full significance of his work." -- Mary Lefkowitz, Andrew Mellon Professor in the Humanities, Wellesley College