The Oxford Handbook of Thucydides contains newly commissioned essays on Thucydides as an historian, thinker, and writer. It also features chapters on Thucydides' intellectual context and ancient reception. The creative juxtaposition of historical, literary, philosophical, and reception studies allows for a better grasp of Thucydides' complex project and its intellectual context, while at the same time providing a comprehensive introduction to the author's ideas. The volume is organized into four sections of papers: History, Historiography, Political Theory, and Context and Reception. It therefore bridges traditionally divided disciplines. The authors engaged to write the forty chapters for this volume include both well-known scholars and less well-known innovators, who bring fresh ideas and new points of view. Articles avoid technical jargon and long footnotes, and are written in an accessible style. Finally, the volume includes a thorough introduction prefacing each paper, as well as several maps and an up-to-date bibliography that will enable further study. The Oxford Handbook of Thucydides offers a comprehensive introduction to a thinker and writer whose simultaneous depth and innovativeness have been the focus of intense literary and philosophical study since ancient times.

Table of Contents00 IntroductionSection I: Thucydides as Historian01 Thucydides' Historical MethodSara Forsdyke02 Thucydides on Early Greek HistoryHans van Wees03 The PentecontaetiaLisa Kallet04 Military Malaise and a Hobbled Hegemony: Sparta and the Crisis of the PeloponnesianLeague in Thucydides' HistoryEllen Millender05 Thucydides on the Athenian Empire and Interstate RelationsPolly Low06 Thucydides on the Causes and Outbreak of the Peloponnesian WarEric Robinson07 Thucydides on the First Ten Years of War (Archidamian War)Peter Hunt08 Mantinea, Decelea and the Interwar Years (421-413 BCE)Cinzia Bearzot09 Thucydides on the Sicilian ExpeditionEmily Greenwood10 Thucydides on the Four Hundred and the Fall of AthensAndrew WolpertSection II: Thucydidean Historiography11. Writing History Implicitly through Refined StructuringHunter Rawlings12. Scale Matters: Compression, Expansion, and Vividness in ThucydidesW. R. Connor13. The Tree, the Funnel, and the Diptych: Some Patterns in Thucydides' Longest SentencesJeffrey Rusten14. Authorial Comments in ThucydidesMatthieu de Bakker15. Thucydides and Myth: A Complex Relation to Past and PresentRosaria Munson16. SpeechesAntonis Tsakmakis17. Characterization of Individuals in Thucydides' HistoryPhilip Stadter18. Campaign and Battle Narratives in ThucydidesEdith FosterSection III: Thucydides and Political Theory19. Was Thucydides a Political Philosopher?Ryan Balot20. Kin?sis, Navies and the Power Trap in ThucydidesArlene Saxonhouse21. Thucydides on Nature and Human ConductClifford Orwin22. Thucydides and the Politics of NecessityKinch Hoekstra and Mark Fisher23. The Regime (Politeia) in ThucydidesSeth Jaffe24. STASIS in the War NarrativeMichael Palmer25. Religion, Politics, and PietyPaul Rahe26. Thucydides on the Political PassionsVictoria Wohl27. Leaders and Leadership in Thucydides' HistoryMary P. Nichols28. Thucydides and CrowdsJohn Zumbrunnen29. Thucydides, International Law, and International AnarchyArthur Eckstein30. Xenophon as a Socratic Reader of ThucydidesPaul Ludwig31. Political Philosophy in an Unstable World: Comparing Thucydides and Plato on thePossibilities of PoliticsGerald MaraSection IV: Contexts and Ancient Reception of Thucydidean Historiography32. Thucydides' Predecessors and Contemporaries in Historical Poetry and ProseLeone Porciani33. Thucydides and His Intellectual MilieuRosalind Thomas34. Thucydides, Epic, and TragedyTobias Joho35. Thucydides and Attic ComedyJeffrey Henderson36. Thucydides and his ContinuatorsVivienne Gray37. History, Rhetoric, and Truth: Dionysius of Halicarnassus on ThucydidesCasper de Jonge38. Polybius and SallustNicolas Wiater39. Writing with Posterity in Mind: Thucydides and Tacitus on SecessionCynthia Damon40. Thucydides, Procopius, and the Historians of the Later Roman EmpireConor Whately