The Plague of War: Athens, Sparta, and the Struggle for Ancient Greece

by Jennifer T. Roberts Narrated by Anne Flosnik

Overview

In 431 BC, the long simmering rivalry between the city-states of Athens and Sparta erupted into open warfare, and for more than a generation the two were locked in a life-and-death struggle. The war embroiled the entire Greek world, provoking years of butchery previously unparalleled in ancient Greece. Whole cities were exterminated, their men killed, their women and children enslaved. While the war is commonly believed to have ended with the capture of the Athenian navy in 405 and the subsequent starvation of Athens, fighting in Greece would continue for several decades. The war did not truly end until, in 371, Thebes's crack infantry resoundingly defeated Sparta at Leuctra.



Jennifer Roberts's rich narrative of this famous conflict is the first general history to tell the whole story, from the war's origins down to Sparta's defeat at Leuctra. In her masterful account, this long and bloody war affected every area of life in Athens, exacerbated divisions between rich and poor in Sparta, and sparked civil strife throughout the Greek world. Yet despite the biting sorrows the fighting occasioned, it remains a gripping saga of plots and counter-plots, murders and lies, missed opportunities and last-minute reprieves, and, as the war's first historian Thucydides had hoped, lessons for a less bellicose future.

Editorial Reviews

The New York Times Book Review - Thomas E. Ricks

Do we really need another history of the Peloponnesian War? That was the question in my mind when I opened this book. When I finished it, I thought, yes, we seem to. Military historians often neglect developments in the arts, for instance, but Roberts weaves in Greek culture, showing how works by dramatists and philosophers reflected events in the war.

From the Publisher

"A narrative that is readable and worth reading for Greek history novice and junkie alike. The affordable paperback, furthermore, is suitable for undergraduate classroom use. Roberts is an engaging and entertaining story-teller with a sense of humor." — Classical Journal-Online

"She illuminates every complex situation, having the essential but often obscure details at her fingertips; she uses her sources as old friends, responsibly but critically.... You are in good hands with Roberts; this is a sad tale, excellently told." — The Heythrop Journal

"A welcome contrast from traditional studies of the war ... Impressive" — Journal of Hellenic Studies

"Roberts presents the reader with a clear, straightforward and chronological narrative of events from the background to and origins of the war through to its grim conclusion and inconclusive war-torn aftermath... this is a good read and a good overview of the events that shaped the Classical Age. The events it describes will long continue to invite debate." — Mathew Trundle, H Soz Kult

"This work is based on impressive scholarship. Roberts maintains a smooth, highly readable narrative flow. In addition to a careful analysis of Thucydides, the author interweaves discussions of fifth- and fourth-century drama, philosophy, architecture, and art. ... Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries." —A. J. Papalas, CHOICE

"An impressively informed and informative work of exceptionally detailed and documented scholarship, "The Plague of War: Athens, Sparta, and the Struggle fro Ancient Greece" reads from beginning to end with an inherently engaging narrative that reads with the smoothness of a well tuned novel. While very highly recommended for both community and academic library World History collections in general, and Hellenic History supplemental studies reading lists in particular, it should be noted for the personal reading lists of students and non-specialist general readres with an interest in the subject that "The Plague of War" is also available in a digital book format (Kindle, $14.39)." —Margaret Lane, The Midwest Book Review

"[Roberts's] in-depth knowledge of the period's players, locations, and events are all woven expertly into the narrative, providing the reader with a broad, expansive view of the war and its consequences for Greek culture and the future of Western civilization." -Military Heritage

"Jennifer Roberts brings her accustomed cool expertise to bear on this hottest of hot topics: not just any old war, but one that in ancient Greek terms counted as a world war and, like those of the last century, produced almost equally as ghastly and irredeemably nasty consequences. Worst of all, in some ways, this was in her concluding epitaph 'War Without Victory'." —Paul Cartledge, author of Democracy: A Life

"In this riveting narrative, Jennifer Roberts breaks new ground with a full-length portrait of the classical Greek world as viewed through a dramatic account of the Peloponnesian War. Roberts breathes new life into the familiar succession of campaigns and battles through the scope of her vision, which gives equal attention to the war's many impacts on the home-front in both Athens and Sparta. In The Plague of War, we see how social upheavals, economic crises, family life, and even philosophy and drama were drawn inexorably into the war-zone." —John R. Hale, author of Lords of the Sea

"Jennifer Roberts recreates the agony of Athens and Sparta with a deft hand and a knowing eye. She tells the story of the war that ruined Greece in all its power and pathos. This is a learned, sympathetic and readable account." —Barry Strauss, author of The Death of Caesar

"This book is exceedingly comprehensive for a book written for a general audience. It is highly readable and quite interesting; the smooth descriptions and detailed portraits of the key statesmen are particularly engaging." - San Francisco Book Review

Library Journal

11/15/2016
Focusing on "lessons for the future," with the hope that societies can avoid repeating the violent struggles and conflicts of the past, this contribution by Roberts (classics, history, City Coll. of New York; Athens on Trial) adds the seventh book in the series. The bulk of the work analyzes the military strategies employed by both Athens and Sparta, while also detailing the politics and personalities behind the course of events. A time line provides connections to the context and culture. References to primary source material ground the work with contemporary accounts while citations of recent scholarship direct readers to other arguments and further research. While the author's conclusion is open-ended, she does raise the question as to the value of war and its long-range costs to society as a whole. VERDICT This academic introduction to the Peloponnesian War would make an excellent addition to any library looking for a single, easy-to-read work that covers Athens and Sparta in an scholarly manner.—Mark Hanson, Maranatha Baptist Univ. Lib., Watertown, WI

Kirkus Reviews

★ 2016-11-09
Lively study of the Peloponnesian War by noted classicist Roberts (Classics and History/City Coll. of New York; Herodotus: A Very Short Introduction, 2011, etc.).In the author's telling, both Athens and Sparta, despite having nursed long grudges, entered somewhat reluctantly into the long conflict that became known, "Athenocentrically," as the Peloponnesian War. That designation came largely through Thucydides, who wrote a magnificent though sometimes-ponderous account of the struggle. Roberts adds to her predecessor's eye for the telling detail a vigorous prose style: "This was a war that might well not have happened. The king of Sparta had no stomach for it, and his countrymen were anxious enough that they sent to Delphi throughout for reassurance even after they had voted for it." Allowing people—well, free males, anyway—to vote on whether to go to war was a Spartan custom, not widely shared even in supposedly democratic states. But Roberts allows that, as Thucydides himself believed, things had gone too far to allow either side to back down from war. The author is a stickler for exactitude; here she points out that an ancient account is off, there that the terminology is wrong—the first decade of conflict is called the Archidamian War, she notes, after the Spartan king, but it was really the bellicose Athenian leader Pericles who deserves the rubric. Overall, she does a very good job of sorting out the complexities of the war, which came to involve not just Athens and Sparta, but also allies, willing and unwilling, throughout the Mediterranean, as well as contending ethnicities and, to complicate matters even further, the Persians, who would go on to make trouble for both sides. Roberts also connects the war to later historical developments, such as the forging of treaties among Greek powers in the following century and the crafting of the Socratic dialogues of Plato, whose Republic reiterates the old arguments over which kind of state was best, the Spartan or the Athenian.Literate and lucid—a fine complement and corrective to the ancient sources.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940173951397
Publisher:	HighBridge Company
Publication date:	11/12/2019
Series:	Ancient Warfare and Civilization
Edition description:	Unabridged

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