The History of the Peloponnesian War


Read by LibriVox Volunteers

(3.5 stars; 90 reviews)

The History of the Peloponnesian War is an account of the Peloponnesian War in Ancient Greece, fought between the Peloponnesian League (led by Sparta) and the Delian League (led by Athens) in the 5th Century BC. It was written by Thucydides, an Athenian general who served in the war. It is widely considered a classic and regarded as one of the earliest scholarly works of history. The History is divided into eight books. These book divisions are the work of editors in later antiquity. (20 hr 57 min)

Chapters

Book 1, ch. 01 31:15 Read by Ryan
Book 1, ch. 02 49:49 Read by Ryan
Book 1, ch. 03 33:15 Read by Ryan
Book 1, ch. 04 36:16 Read by Ryan
Book 1, ch. 05 45:39 Read by Ryan
Book 2, ch. 06 1:02:43 Read by Ryan
Book 2, ch. 07 38:16 Read by Ryan
Book 2, ch. 08 53:24 Read by Ryan
Book 3, ch. 09 1:00:07 Read by Chris Mitchell
Book 3, ch. 10 44:41 Read by Kirsten Ferreri
Book 3, ch. 11 32:30 Read by C. Berrius
Book 4, ch. 12 45:30 Read by C. Berrius
Book 4, ch. 13 34:59 Read by C. Berrius
Book 4, ch. 14 1:08:15 Read by C. Berrius
Book 5, ch. 15 40:33 Read by Chris Mitchell
Book 5, ch. 16 1:35:19 Read by Chris Mitchell
Book 5, ch. 17 22:26 Read by Chris Mitchell
Book 6, ch. 18 55:27 Read by Chris Mitchell
Book 6, ch. 19 49:32 Read by Chris Mitchell
Book 6, ch. 20 1:16:10 Read by Chris Mitchell
Book 7, ch. 21 54:12 Read by Victoria Long
Book 7, ch. 22 13:36 Read by Deborah Clark
Book 7, ch. 23 54:05 Read by Kirsten Ferreri
Book 8, ch. 24 55:56 Read by ianish
Book 8, ch. 25 52:34 Read by ianish
Book 8, ch. 26 50:54 Read by ianish

Reviews


(2.5 stars)

good history but had a problem with the first readers level of literacy if you cannot properly pronounce the names involved then you should not be reading instead of infecting others with your mispronunciations you should learn to properly pronounce Greek names

Important history, but....


(0.5 stars)

20 hours, i cant believe i listened to the whole thing. one reader was drinking water, gulping into the microphone. way too dry, this book is.


(2 stars)

The first reader, Ryan, immediately gets off to a bad start by mispronouncing "Thucydides." Getting the name of the author wrong is inexcusable. Add to that the room echo, the grating nasality of his voice, and his not bothering to shield his microphone from the pop-pop-pop of his plosives, and what you've got is an adventure in bad reading so execrable that it's unlistenable. But Ryan isn't unique. Librivox may be performing a service, but the readers are all volunteers, and you get what you pay for. Nine out of ten Librivox readers are bad readers in one way or another. Some of them are SO bad they shouldn't be allowed in front of a microphone.

Exceptional work of history


(5 stars)

I find this book exceptional. It is difficult to write a review which does justice to the text. There is so much in here besides a simple narration of the war. Thucydides has such a deep understanding of the causes of things, and all the different aspects of war and politics. There is real pathos in this account. Thucydides' writing has gravity and seriousness, and he never displays partiality, yet still manages to convey his personal opinions. The paired speeches, putting forward opposing arguments, are exceptional. I find myself convinced by both speakers!

Great Book Poor Narration


(2.5 stars)

The book becomes hard to understand because the poor capabilities of the narrator. Blunders on punctuation, mis pronunciation, Blowing into the microphone, gulping water. Going back an editing in mistakes that can be differentiated from the original reading. Reads like he is in a race to get all the words out with no context to the actual text version of this book. at least for the first 3 books. the second narrator seems at least a little better.

Great History Some Indifferent Narration.


(3 stars)

Unfortunately too many poor narrators. A lack of a proper cadence and a knowledge of Greek pronunciations has let down a number of narrators.. Their halting and stuttering style made many chapters a hard listen. However some excellent narrators did a great job.

Challenging work well done


(5 stars)

Having many difficult greek names and places to pronounce, this is a challenging work to be sure. The narrators did well in their efforts to read this already challenging classical work.

Awesome


(5 stars)

sure, the audio quality and the readers are poor, but the history and social theory is incredible. I am grateful for the days of recording and editing that went into making this available.