Lawrence A. Tritle is Professor of History at Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles. He has previously taught at Loyola University, Chicago and UCLA as visiting Professor of History. He is the author or editor of eight books on Greek history, including Phocion the Good (1988) and From Melos to My Lai (2000), as well as numerous articles on various aspects of the ancient world. He has served on the editorial board of the Ancient History Bulletin (1996 - 2003) and as president of the International Plutarch Society (1997-1999).

List of illustrations viii

List of maps x

List of abbreviations xi

Chronology xiii

Acknowledgments xix

Preface xxi

Prelude - a band of brothers 1

1 'From this the Corinthians developed their bitter hatred for the Athenians' 4

2 'Give the Greeks their freedom' 25

3 'Our city is an education to Greece' 44

4 'War is a violent teacher' 67

5 'Spindles would be worth a lot' 85

6 'Weeping for joy' 111

7 'The strong do what they have the power to do' 132

8 'What of us then who for our children must weep?' 144

9 'The whole of Greece against Athens' 165

10 'Ships gone . . . don't know what to do' 186

11 'Athens is taken' 205

12 'Here's to the noble Critias!' 223

Epilogue 241

Appendix A: A note on sources 243

Appendix B: Who's who in the Peloponnesian War 248

Appendix C: A Peloponnesian War glossary 258

Bibliography 263

Index 275

"Tritle's overall aim is to make the content and context of the
Peloponnesian War more accessible to those unfamiliar with
classics, and on the whole I believe he succeeds. His tone
throughout is quite relaxed...but for those unfamiliar with
classical Greek history and/or the Peloponnesian war Tritle's book
is a good starting place." (Bryn Mawr Classical Review,
December 2010)

"Recommended. Undergraduate libraries and above". (Choice, 1
November 2010)

"An insightful, highly readable history of the first all-out
war in western history. Tritle knows Greek history and he knows
what war does to soldiers and civilians alike."

Tom Palaima, University of Texas at Austin

"Not another paraphrase of Thucydides, Tritle's sensitive
new history of the great war between Athens and Sparta marshals the
literary and material evidence to explore the human and societal
experience, showing once again that military history extends far
beyond the battlefield."

Waldemar Heckel, University of Calgary

"Swift narrative, mastery of modern scholarship, and
unusual integration of classical literature. Like his great source
Thucydides, the author was a soldier, and the terrible brutality of
war is immanent."

Mortimer Chambers, UCLA

"By helping us understand broadly and deeply the human and
social dimension of this war, Tritle's book brilliantly
justifies its ambitious title of a 'new history' of an
often-treated old war."

Kurt A. Raaflaub, Brown University