Thucydides needed a ghost writer.

[gridlore]

History of the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


Good grief.

I love primary sources. Reading history written by the people who were closer to it than I am is always fascinating, as it gives you a window into different times and places. But I struggled with this book. The problem is, and I'll be blunt, is that Thucydides was a boring writer. What we have is a very dry, colorless, recitation of facts with almost no emotion even in emotional moments!

Thucydides takes great pains to recreate the various orations and debates surrounding the epic war between Athen and Sparta, but again, reading them is like listing to Ben Stein in Ferris Buehler's Day Off. These people were debating monumental issues, and at no point is there any energy in the speeches or the reactions. I'm sure the actual debates were full of fire and passion, and that the reactions ran the gamut from cheers of support to fruit being thrown, but that is entirely absent.

Even the battles are related as if you are reading about a chess match rather than thousands of troops clashing in bronze armor, spears and swords stained with blood, emotions running high. My previous sentence had more energy than this entire book. It takes a lot to make what amounted to a world war of the time boring, but Thucydides manages it.

One of the great mysteries is that Thucydides ends his writings mid-sentence. We know he lived a little longer, so there's no good explanation. I believe even he got sick of his own prose. I can't recommend this unless you are really interested in this particular period of Greek history.



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