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Many of us have read Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War — and some of us have enjoyed it and others have struggled mightily. That being the case, can anyone here recommend a translation that is aimed more at the general reader and less at the serious historian? I have the Finley and Warner translations, but wanted to find a more readable copy for my high school aged son. Any suggestions?
Here is a list of the translations. I imagine the Blanco (1998) or Lattimore (2002) translations would have language that your son would be most comfortable with.
I just purchased this one. It is advertised as being easy to read/follow according to the comments. Will advise.
I have the Finley translation. I read it in High School. Then again I was pretty much a geek back then too.
Vulture, Strassler's “The Landmark Thucydides” (the one I mentioned and linked to earlier) is very readable. It's writtten in modern, 21st century language with easy to understand sentences. (very good notes and excellent cross references too)Not sure how accurate it is, but it's based on Crawley's translation.I read Book One and stopped there because I decided I want to read Herodotus first. de Selincourt translation, Penguin Books, $10.00 at Borders. Can't beat that!
Thucydides is one of the most difficult to translate, so any translation is actually only an interpretation. He uses uncommon words and obscure and/or unclear verb conjugations. Example: Thucydides used a few different words that have been translated as “excellence” or “valor” where Aristotle just used the more common Greek word for it, arete. That's why I want to learn Greek, so I can interpret Thucydides myself (or try to anyway).
