The Peace of Nicias and the Sicilian Expedition

Donald Kagan is Sterling Professor of Classics and History at Yale University.

Part One: The Unraveling of the Peace 1. A Troubled Peace 2. The Separate League 3. The Alliance of Athens and Argos 4. The Challenge of the Separate League 5. The Battle of Mantinea 6. After Mantinea: Politics and Policy at Sparta and Athens Part Two: The Sicilian Expedition 7. The Decision to Attack Sicily 8. Sacrilege and Departure 9. Athenian Strategy and the Summer Campaign of 415 10. The First Attack on Syracuse 11. The Siege of Syracuse 12. Athens on the Defensive 13. Defeat on Land and Sea 14. Retreat and Destruction Conclusions Bibliography General Index Index of Modem Authors Index of Ancient Authors and Inscriptions

"Kagan brings new insight into the natures of Agis II and Gylippus, Nicias and Alciabiades, and they come alive as never before."-The Classical Outlook "This is a solid piece of scholarship, a readable, consistent, and understandable account of a difficult period in Greek history, and rife with astute and provocative observations on Thucydides."-The Historian "A profound analysis of the relation of strategy to politics, a sympathetic but searching critique of Thucydides' masterpiece, and a trenchant assessment of the voluminous modern literature on the war."-Bernard Knox, The Atlantic Monthly (reviewing the four-volume series) "The temptation to acclaim Kagan's four volumes as the foremost work of history produced in North America in the twentieth century is vivid... Here is an achievement that not only honors the criteria of dispassion and of unstinting scruple which mark the best of modern historicism but honors its readers. To read Kagan's 'History of the Peloponnesian War' at the present hour is to be almost unbearably tested."-George Steiner, The New Yorker (reviewing the four-volume series)