The History of the Peloponnesian War (Version 2): Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

The History of the Peloponnesian War (Version 2), credited to Thucydides (Θουκυδίδης), is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of The History of the Peloponnesian War (Version 2) by Thucydides (Θουκυδίδης). (Translated by Richard Crawley.) Read in English by Peter Dann. The more things change, the more they stay the same. Such may be the reaction of many listeners to Thucydides' compelling and rightly celebrated account of the war fought over more than twenty years between Athens and Sparta and their respective allies that began in 431 BCE. It is true there are extended passages in Thucydides' account that sound rather like "[Army X] marched to [region with strange name], fought [group with strange name], were victorious, and set up a trophy" — but there is a lot more to Thucydides' account of this geographically dispersed conflict than this. Thucydides was himself an active participant in the war (he served as an Athenian general), and his history includes many detailed descriptions of specific battles both on land and at sea that are clearly derived from eyewitness accounts, as well as detailed accounts of incidents that saw strongholds taken by treachery or trickery, rather than armed conflict. Throughout, Thucydides gives us many set speeches, often of remarkable logical and rhetorical sophistication, by which the proponents of opposite courses of action seek to win the approbation of decision-making assemblies. He is clear-eyed about both the strengths and weaknesses of democratic forms of government in times of crisis and describes unflinchingly the almost endless cycles of making and breaking alliances that were such a feature of this conflict — and which perhaps, are just the inevitable by-product of our human nature. It is little wonder that on the strength of this text, Thucydides has come to be recognized as the father of political realism. (Summary by Peter Dann)

Recording facts

• Recording title: The History of the Peloponnesian War (Version 2)
• Author credits: Thucydides (Θουκυδίδης)
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 26
• Listed recording duration: 19:35:09

Catalogue topics

• Ancient Greece
• peloponnesian war
• greece -- history -- peloponnesian war
• 431-404 b.c.

Opening tracks: first 24 of 26

1. 01 - Chapter 1 — 31:13
2. 02 - Chapter 2 — 51:07
3. 03 - Chapter 3 — 31:43
4. 04 - Chapter 4 — 33:27
5. 05 - Chapter 5 — 45:19
6. 06 - Chapter 6 — 1:01:19
7. 07 - Chapter 7 — 34:55
8. 08 - Chapter 8 — 50:18
9. 09 - Chapter 9 — 57:31
10. 10 - Chapter 10 — 47:44
11. 11 - Chapter 11 — 36:51
12. 12 - Chapter 12 — 50:35
13. 13 - Chapter 13 — 39:16
14. 14 - Chapter 14 — 1:17:00
15. 15 - Chapter 15 — 33:00
16. 16 - Chapter 16 — 1:17:05
17. 17 - Chapter 17 — 17:29
18. 18 - Chapter 18 — 43:12
19. 19 - Chapter 19 — 37:05
20. 20 - Chapter 20 — 58:02
21. 21 - Chapter 21 — 53:16
22. 22 - Chapter 22 — 13:37
23. 23 - Chapter 23 — 54:47
24. 24 - Chapter 24 — 50:05

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.