In the fifth century BC, Athens and Sparta, the two greatest cities of Greece, wage war on each other for almost thirty years. Thucydides, an Athenian general who lived through it, tells of the battles, the plague that strikes Athens, the speeches of Pericles and the disastrous expedition against Sicily.
He tries to understand what drives men to war: fear, interest, honour. His lessons still hold: people still speak of the “Thucydides Trap” when a rising power alarms an established one.
With the translation always in front of you, you can read this great classic of history in the language you are learning.



















