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Book at Bedtime: The History of the Peloponnesian War

David Horovitch

undefined Thucydides

Tom Holland

Justine Willett

The History of the Peloponnesian War: Episode 5: The Beginning of the End

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The History of the Peloponnesian War

Episode 5

Episode 5: The Beginning of the End

The Beginning of the End

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An expedition to conquer Sicily spells the beginning of the end of Athenian power.

Ancient Greek historian Thucydides' account of the devastating wars between Athens and Sparta. An expedition to conquer Sicily spells the beginning of the end of Athenian power.

'My work is not a piece of writing designed to meet the taste of an immediate public, but was done to last for ever,' Thucydides
Ancient Greek historian Thucydides' masterful first-hand account chronicles the devastating wars between Athens and Sparta during the 5th century BC. It was a life-and-death struggle that reshaped the face of ancient Greece and pitted Athenian democracy against Spartan militarism.
Thucydides himself was an Athenian aristocrat and general who went on to record what he saw as the greatest war of all time, applying a passion for accuracy and a contempt for myth admired by historians today. And as father of modern Realpolitik, his influence fed into the works of Machiavelli, Thomas Hobbs and the politics of the Cold War and beyond.
Today: an expedition to conquer Sicily spells the beginning of the end of Athenian power.
Abridger: Tom Holland
Reader: David Horowitch
Producer: Justine Willett.

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First-hand account by Thucydides of the 5th-century BC wars between Athens and Sparta.

First-hand account by Thucydides of the wars between Athens and Sparta in the 5th century BC, which reshaped the face of ancient Greece. Read by David Horovitch. Abridged by Tom Holland.

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