Thus far in my reading the St. John’s list, each book I have so far read – Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, the Oresteia and Prometheus Bound of Aeschylus, and the Theban plays, Philoctetes, and Ajax of Sophocles – has been one that I have already previously read at least once. The next book on the list, the Peloponnesian War of Thucydides, will be wholly new to me. Not only have I not read the book itself, I have not previously even studied the history of it through secondary sources or commentaries.
Therefore the translation and edition I have chosen for my inaugural reading of it is The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War, being the complete Richard Crawley translation of the work as edited and annotated by Robert B. Strassler. According to my preliminary investigations into Thucydides’ work, his writing is considered to be complex and difficult even to those studying it with the benefit of an experienced teacher by their side guiding them. Lacking such, I hope that Dr. Strassler’s edition with its extensive annotations, supplementary essays, and numerous maps will aid me in my understanding of not only the text itself but also of the event which it chronicles.
