The History of the Peloponnesian War, by Thucydides, is part of the Barnes & Noble Classics series, which offers quality editions at affordable prices to the student and the general reader, including new scholarship, thoughtful design, and pages of carefully crafted extras. Here are some of the remarkable features of Barnes & Noble Classics: • New introductions commissioned from todays top writers and scholars • Biographies of the authors • Chronologies...

The only chronicle by an ancient general of his own campaigns, this historical treasure is also a work of profound literary merit. Julius Caesar's fascinating account of his conquests offers a trove of priceless details about the cultures of Gaul, Germany, and Britain during the First century B.C.-and of the great man himself. Despite his extensive background in politics, Caesar expresses himself without hiding behind rhetoric, in an uncluttered,...

Sing of rage, Goddess, that bane of Akhilleus, Peleus' son, which caused untold pain for Akhaians, sent down throngs of powerful spirits to Aides, war-chiefs rendered the prize of dogs and every sort of bird. Edward McCrorie's new translation of Homer's classic epic of the "Trojan War" captures the falling rhythms of a doomed "Troy". McCrorie presents the sundry epithets and resonant symbols of Homer's verse style and remains as close to the Greek's...

"The first great adventure story in the Western canon, The Odyssey is a poem about violence and the aftermath of war; about wealth, poverty, and power; about marriage and family; about travelers, hospitality, and the yearning for home. In this fresh, authoritative version--the first English translation of The Odyssey by a woman--this stirring tale of shipwrecks, monsters, and magic comes alive in an entirely new way. Written in iambic pentameter verse...

Demosthenes is generally acknowledged as the greatest orator in history. He overcame a stammer and the theft of his inheritance by his legal guardians to become as foundational to oratory as his contemporaries Plato and Aristotle are to philosophy. Much like a major contemporary political figure, he overcame a stammer on his journey to greatness, with "inarticulate and stammering pronunciation." He was known as "a water drinker"; a stern and serious...