8:30 pm I have completed reading Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War. Talk about a surprise ending! No wonder I wasn't sure I had the dates right. The war began in 431 and ended in 404. The pattern was 10 years of fighting, a 7 year "truce" and 10 more years of fighting. However the book ends in 411 with still 7 more years left in the war. I wasn't expecting that. Two thoughts come to mind: (1) Thucydides dies before completing the book - patently not true, from reading the introduction, or (2) the last chapters are lost. This second possibility is apparently also not considered, I assume for some good reason. It was the unexpectedness of this that appealed to me.

The description of the battle for Syracuse (in Sicily) was gripping. The question of what to do with 8,000 prisoners was handled easily. Place them all in a quarry and keep them on barely subsistence rations, with no protection from the weather. This was not an age of chivalry.

The description of the overthrow of democracy in Athens and a return to an oligarchy was also described in some detail. The Athenians were in for some strife after their loss at Syracuse. Before I read this book, I was unaware that there had ever been a battle at Syracuse, and if you had told me that the turning point in the Peloponnesian War occured in Sicily, I would have thought you were joking. There is so much to learn.

I also am glad that I decided to try a rich description rather than a few pages of spartan facts in a text. I wonder if I can find a good description of Alexander the Great?

I will return to the text Ancient Greece and review the descriptions of Greek history up to about 240 B.C. Then I want to return to the plays of Aristophanes and Sophocles. Also I want to have a glance at Socrates, Plato, and Socrates. I am pleased with what I have learned so far about Ancient Greece. I have almost 11 months left in this journey - there is lots of time to devote to the other threads in this quilt. The Greek pattern has been very rewarding. I have decided not to create a page of quotes from the speeches, but to press on. I do have the speeches marked in the book (28 of them).