Book: A War Like No Other: How the Athenians & Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War
Author: Victor Davis Hanson
Publisher: ‎ Random House Trade Paperbacks; Annotated edition (12 September 2006)
Language: ‎ English
Paperback: ‎ 416 pages
Item Weight: ‎ 471 g
Dimensions: ‎ 15.52 x 2.21 x 23.34 cm
Country of Origin: ‎ USA
Price: 1385/-

“Was Athens—or Greece itself—destroyed by the war? An entire industry of classical scholarship once argued for postwar Hellenic “decline,” and the subsequent tide of fourth-century poverty, social unrest, and class struggle as arising after the Peloponnesian War. Victorians, in turn, felt the loss was more a “what might have been,” a conflict that had ended not just the idea of Athens but “the glory that was Greece” itself and the Hellenic civilizing influence in the wider Mediterranean…”

From 431 to 404 a war raged across the Greek world from Sicily to the eastern Aegean, today ’ s modern Turkey, now known as the Peloponnesian War.

Such violence was not an extraordinary feature of Greek life, as Homer’s great poems tell and as the philosopher Heraclitus soon after proclaimed (c. 500) – ‘war is the father of all things ’.

The war between Athens, ‘leader of the Delian League of allied city-states and colonies’ against Sparta, ‘leader of the
Peloponnesian League’ pitted a prevailing Navy against one of the most overriding infantry forces in history.

Preceding this clash, Athens had defeated a Persian invasion force, at the Battle of Marathon. A decade later a much larger Persian invasion force suffered key setbacks and defeats at Thermopylae, where 300 Spartans distinctively fought to the last man.

Then at Salamis, the Persians were dealt a major naval defeat against the Athenian Navy and in conclusion at Plataea the Persian army was defeated on land, before downsizing and ultimately abandoning the campaign.

For the next half-century, both states followed an anti Persian policy and supported any anti Persian activities in the eastern Mediterranean, allowing for an sporadic peace to exist between Athens and Sparta. In order to fight the Persians at sea, the Athenians formed the Delian League by exercising progressive control over the members of the league.

Athens renovated this coalition into an empire, exacting tribute from its members. From the money extracted from her client states, Athens built herself into a city, which was the envy of the Hellenistic world.

And a fleet of 300 triple banked galleys each of these triremes was manned by a crew of a hundred and seventy professional oarsmen.

The city-state of Corinth had been the overriding maritime power prior to the Persian Wars. And as Athens’ power grew, her Navy outnumbered the Corinth fleet three-to-one and began to inflame rebellion in their colonies and intrude on its trade routes in a sequence of small conflicts lasting 15 years, known as the first Peloponnesian War.

Sparta opposed Athens and defeated the Athenian army in one non decisive engagement, while Athens continued to expand her naval power. One significant development during this period was the rebuilding of Athens’ walls on a grand scale, with an elongated causeway connecting Athens with the port city of Piraeus, allowing Athens to be completely supplied by sea, if an invading army would destroy the surrounding countryside and farmland.

This antagonistic period ended with the so-called ‘30 year’s peace’ between the two city-states, which would last for less than half of its intended duration. Despite this peace, antagonism between Athens and Corinth continued and in 431 BC Corinth productively convinced Sparta and the Peloponnesian League to declare war on Athens, with the goal of ending the swelling Athenian Empire.

The first phase of the second Peloponnesian War, commonly referred to as plainly the Peloponnesian War is known as Archidamian War. Here, Sparta pursued a policy of pillaging the countryside around Athens.

In an attempt to provoke a pitched battle, the Athenians had anticipated the Spartan strategy and had organized a continuous flow of grain shipments from Egypt and colonies on the Aegean and Black Sea coasts. The Athenian strategy was to barricade the Peloponnesian Peninsula from any trade and supplies, while opportunistically raiding Sparta's allies.

Initially the Athenians seemed to be maintaining the upper hand in this asymmetric war of attrition that had been carefully planned for years by the Athenian statesman Pericles.

The population from the surrounding countryside poured in behind the safety of the Athenian walls in the early stages of the war. This had been taken into account in advance and wealthy Athens had more than enough food flowing into the crowded city to feed everyone.

What had not been taken into account were the tainted grain shipments carrying plague, which speedily spread through the overloaded city.

Initially the city was pliant, inspired by the magnetic rhetoric of Pericles. An estimated one in four Athenians succumbed to the plague, including Pericles and his sons, before it had run its course.

At the height, mercenaries refused to fight for Athens and even the Spartans ceased to campaign near Athens for fear of catching the plague.

Ironically the extraordinarily planned Athenian blockade of the Peloponnese had protected Sparta and its allies from receiving any of the plague-tainted grain. The Athenian survivors adopted a much more violent strategy, greatly increasing the raids and building fortified outposts along the Peloponnese and coasts.

The ‘helots’ (Spartan slaves) that outnumbered them ten to one, were encouraged to run away to these outposts which put pressure on sparta to defend the homefront.

This phase of the war ended with the 50-year Peace of Nicias, which never really went into full effect, with both belligerents raiding each other through proxies from the onset.

Eventually directly in 415 BC, the Athenians devised a plan they believed would bestow upon themselves, an overwhelming advantage -- the conquest of the resplendently wealthy city-state of Syracuse, on the island of Sicily which, along with Athens and Carthage, controlled the lion’s share of Mediterranean trade, led by the young charismatic Athenian statesman Alcibiades.

The expedition ended in disaster, with Athens losing over 10,000 hoplites and two-thirds of her Navy. Ships could be rebuilt, but the 30,000 of her professional oarsmen could not be replaced.

This was followed by further disasters. Sparta freed 20,000 Athenian slaves from the city's silver mines. Athens then raised the tribute from her vassals, which caused widespread revolt in Ionia, for which this final stage of the war is famed.

When this war broke out it seemed to at least one Greek, an Athenian aristocrat named Thucydides, that it would be different, that it would be, as one modern scholar has suggested, ‘a war like no other ’. Thucydides’ account of this war is at once analytic and philosophical, poignant and emotional.

His treatment of how two powerful states and their allies became locked in conflict has provided generations of historians and political scientists with an introduction to the subject of war and peace, war and violence, in general the ways of great powers.

Yet much of the modern treatment of the Peloponnesian War continues to examine the war much as Thucydides did – as a military and political conflict that unsuspecting readers might think took place in a social and cultural vacuum.

This is where the current book is different.

The author very candidly remarks, “This book does not answer that question through a strategic account of the conflict’s various campaigns. Much less is it a political study of the reasons that caused the Spartans to fight against Athens.

Fine narratives in English by George Grote, George Grundy, B. W. Henderson, Donald Kagan, John Lazenby, Anton Powell, Geoffrey de Ste. Croix, and others cover those topics. So there is no need for another traditional history of the Peloponnesian War.

Instead, how did the Athenians battle the Spartans on land, in the cities, at sea, and out in the Greek countryside?

What was it like for those who killed and died in this horrific war, this nightmare about which there has been little written of how many Greeks fought, how many perished, or even how all of it was conducted?

The book’s aim, therefore, after a brief introduction to the universal events of the Peloponnesian War, is to flesh out this three-decade fight of some twenty-four hundred years past as something very human and thus to allow the war to become more than a far-off struggle of a distant age.

This book’s chapters are for the most part organized not by annual events but by the experience of battle: “fire” (the ravaging of the land), “disease” (plague), “terror” (coups and irregular fighting), “armor” (hoplite warfare), “walls” (sieges), “horses” (the Sicilian expedition), and “ships” (trireme fighting). These chapter themes are also interwoven with a loose ongoing narrative of the war, again with the understanding that each chapter draws on illustrations taken from the entire twenty-seven-year conflict.

No other struggle can provide such military lessons for the present as the Peloponnesian War. Of course, it was a Balkans-type mess—but also a conflict involving two great superpowers, as well as a war of terror, of dirty fighting in a Hellenic Third World, of forcing democracy down the throats of sometimes unwilling states, and of domestic and cultural upheavals at home brought on by frustrations of fighting abroad.

Most recommended for history buffs.

I thoroughly enjoyed Victor Davis Hanson’s “A War Like No Other,” which I read as both an e-book and Audible audiobook. Additionally, I read it concurrently with “The Landmark Thucydides” (also Five Stars - look for my review at Goodreads.com). Both books I feel are indispensable to the military or classical historian, as well as anyone interested in a more complete understanding of the Peloponnesian War in particular, and Greek and Western culture in general.

“A War Like No Other” is a solid Five-Stars

If you are unfamiliar with the Peloponnesian War, don’t worry, you’ll find no spoilers here.

The Greeks were an irritable bunch, and despite the snow-capped mountain ranges and often treacherous seas that usually separated two poleis or city-states, they still found the motivation to make “war” on one another. However, the conflicts were usually short, sometimes only a day, and rather civil in comparison to our modern, total-warfare. Most combatants were heavily armored hoplites and the simple tactics were those of the phalanx. The resulting casualties were around 8%. With the battle over and the matter settled, under truce each side collected their dead, the winners would take whatever was fought over, set up a trophy, and everyone would march home and get back to business - which usually meant farming. But the Peloponnesian War (or, the Athenian War if you happen to have been a Peloponnesian) was different, it really was “a war like no other.” For starters, it was a long war at 27 years (431 - 404 BC), it was a long time ago, (2450 years) and just about every Greek state fell in behind either Athens and the Delian League or the Spartans and the Peloponnesian League. Some call the Peloponnesian War the “first world war” because it encompassed so much of the Western world. I’m not sure I’d go that far, but I would call it the First Greek Civil War.

Like our own Civil War, the Peloponnesian War was an ugly, costly, and tragic endeavor. Atrocities were committed, cities were razed, great speeches were given, and many were starved, enslaved, and executed. By ancient standards the area of operations was large – from Sicily to Asia Minor, plus a widely-scattered panoply of islands, seas, rivers, settlements, cities, and territories. Not to mention the myriad of treaties and alliances between and within both leagues that were constantly being stretched, violated, and broken. With all that being said, it’s no wonder that truly understanding the Peloponnesian War can be a difficult thing to get your arms around.

Thank God for Thucydides because without him we would know very little about this war. He was an Athenian general until he was relieved of command and ostracized after losing a battle in northern Greece to a superb Spartan commander. However, Thucydides' loss was our good fortune because he now had the time to devote himself to writing a story “for all ages.” He is widely considered one of, if not THE greatest historian ever. So, for anyone with a desire to better understand the Peloponnesian war, without a doubt, the first step is reading and studying Thucydides’ “History.” And the best translation and editing is Robert B. Stassler’s, “Landmark Thucydides."

The next step (or for me, the concurrent step) is to read “A War Like No Other.” Why? Well, before I go there, it’s best that I clarify what “A War Like No Other” is NOT: it’s NOT another history of the Peloponnesian War or a political commentary, nor is it a strategic analysis of the 27-year conflict. Prof. Hanson’s “A War Like No Other” is more of a “drilling-down” - it’s 10 enlightening chapters, each addressing a different aspect of ancient warfare. If Thucydides tells you WHAT happened, Prof. Hanson explains HOW it may have happened, to what EFFECT; this is what the ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE shows or this is the OPINION OF SCHOLARS. An example of the most latter can be found in Chapter 4, entitled “Terror: War in the Shadows (431-421),” Prof. Hanson writes:

“Peter Krentz has made the point that hoplite battle was not the primary means of fighting by counting up all the examples of deception and surprise attacks, often by night and fought by nonhoplites. * His thirty-seven instances in the Peloponnesian War dwarf the two large, set-piece hoplite encounters at Delium and Mantinea, and the smaller clashes of phalanxes at Solygia and Syracuse. Similarly, W. K. Pritchett collated forty-three examples of night attacks during the Peloponnesian War, engagements that were antithetical to the old idea of drawing up armies in broad daylight to settle the issue through infantry clashes.” (1)

“A War Like No Other” helps bring the Peloponnesian War into a clearer focus, it adds a fine layer of detail to Thucydides. Prof. Hanson begins by explaining why generals, statesmen, presidents, and kings have read Thucydides for 2 ½ millennia and why he’s still relevant today. Prof. Hanson takes you between the lines of Thucydides, often providing critical BACKSTORY behind a particular event or cite supporting ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE. He might even (as I’ll cite just below) conduct an EXPERIMENT.

Prof. Hanson digs into the nitty-gritty of ancient Greek warfare to convey what it was like for those who “killed and died” (2) on the Greecian battlefield. How was ancient naval warfare conducted? What was it like to row in the bottom of a trireme? What happened when your vessel was rammed by another? What was the crew’s chance of survival? In several places, he highlights HISTORICAL PARALLELS. One example is found in Chapter 5 “Armor: Hoplite Pitched Battles (424-418):”

“Spartan ships, such as Alcidas’ armada, which had headed for Lesbos in 427, were capable only of short voyages akin to the German battleship Bismarck’s brief breakouts into the North Atlantic during 1941” (3)

And he doesn’t take Thucydides’ words necessarily at face-value, Prof. Hanson goes the extra mile and physically tests Thucydides’ claims. My favorite example is found in Chapter 2 “Fire: The War Against the Land (431-425).”

When Thucydides claims:

“Athens was being ravaged before the very eyes of the Athenians…” (Thucydides 2.21) (4)

Prof. Hanson experiments:

“The Spartan idea was to marshal the Peloponnesian League, invade Attica, destroy farmland, and hope that the Athenians came out to fight. Barring that, the strategy fell back on the hope that food lost at harvesttime would cause costly shortages at Athens…

But the hide of permanent plants is tougher than men’s. Orchards and vineyards are more difficult to fell than people, as the Peloponnesians quickly learned when they crossed into Attica in late May 431. Attica possessed more individual olive trees and grapevines than classical Greece did inhabitants. Anywhere from five to ten million olive trees and even more vines dotted the one-thousand-square-mile landscape. The city’s thousands of acres of Attic grain fields were augmented by far more farmland throughout the Aegean, southern Russia, and Asia Minor, whose harvests were only a few weeks’ transport away from Athens…

Partly in pursuit of that answer, a few years ago I tried to chop down several old walnut trees on my farm. Even when the ax did not break, it sometimes took me hours to fell an individual tree. Subsequent trials with orange, plum, peach, olive, and apricot trunks were not much easier. Even after I’d chainsawed an entire plum grove during the spring, within a month or so large suckers shot out from the stumps. Had one wished to restore the orchard, new cultivars could have been grafted to the fresh wild shoots. Apricot, peach, almond, and persimmon trees proved as tough. Olives were the hardest of all to uproot. It was even difficult to try to set them afire. Living fruit trees (like vines) will not easily burn-or at least stay lit long and hot enough to kill the tree. Even when I ignited the surrounding dry brush, the leaves were scorched, the bark blackened, but no lasting damage was done. Thucydides observes that the Spartans, during their fourth invasion of Attica in 427, needed to recut those trees and vines "that had grown up again" after their first devastations a few years earlier-a phenomenon of regeneration well recorded elsewhere of other such attacks on agriculture.” (5)

As a professional military scholar, Prof. Hanson understands the military value of terrain features, but as a farmer, he “sees” what most of us would not. For instance, I found it interestingly perceptive when he noticed much of the land surrounding Athens lies at different elevations. Because of this, fields of grain would ripen up to three weeks apart. That means that when the Spartans came to ravage Athenian agriculture, a percentage of their fields would still be green, and thus less likely to catch fire when they tried to set them ablaze.

The e-book contains extensive notes, a glossary of common Terms and Places, and from Alcibiades to Xenophon an appendix of the major players, works cited, and nine detailed maps.

The audiobook is 13 hours 58 minutes in length and excellent. I enjoy having the ability to listen anywhere and at any time with my Audible app on my phone or, even better, on one of my Amazon Echoes. It’s so nice to be outside, enjoying the weather and listening to an audiobook – and “A War Like No Other” is one of those books that is so packed with good information, you’ll enjoy listening to it several times. One of the things I enjoy about listening on an Echo is that I can say, “Alexa, rewind 10 seconds” or whatever if I missed something (not an Alexa advertisement, some of the others probably work also).

Narrator Bob Souer gets the job done with no mistakes for a solid Three Stars

Narrator Bob Souer’s voice is easy to listen to for 14 hours. But, except for a few Greek tongue-twister’s, which I expect a professional narrator to pronounce correctly, the book is straightforward with no character voices or the like that might allow the narrator to shine. Souer does a good, albeit average, job and that’s why the three stars.

Overall:

“A War Like No Other” is a must-read for anyone wanting to better understand the Peloponnesian War

Time after time Prof. Hanson provided the detail I wanted (indeed, sometimes he provided details I didn’t know I wanted) to more thoroughly understand this crucial, relevant, and highly interesting period in history - I cannot think now of the Peloponnesian War without incorporating what I learned in “A War Like No Other.”

If you’re interested, I provided a link below to Prof. Hanson’s 2005 lecture from Book TV and C-SPAN2: (6)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zAlS...

LAST: I sincerely hope my review helped you! If so, please click LIKE/FOLLOW or send me a COMMENT. – Thanks!
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1. Hanson, chaps. 4 (Freda 24%) also see Note 2: P. Krentz, "Deception," 186–91; Pritchett, Greek State, 2.163–70. Hanson. (Freda 82%).
2. Hanson, sec. Prologue (Freda 2%).
3. Hanson, chap. 5. (Freda 32%).
4. Robert B Strassler and Victor Davis Hanson, The Landmark Thucydides: A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War. (Riverside: Free Press, 1998), chap. 2.21.
5. Hanson, A War like No Other, chap. 2 (Freda 12%).
6. A War Like No Other: The Peloponnesian War, accessed January 30, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zAlS....

First rate. It reads like a Work of Fiction. If you have read Thucydides The History of the Peloponnese War then this is the next step.

Can't even make it to the end of this book, nor do I want to. "A Bore Like No Other"

Those looking for a moment by moment linear narrative of the Peloponnesian War have multiple options including Thucydides himself. This is a little more particular and wonderfully illustrates the the actual human cost and traditional methods of war evolving in front of the combatant's eyes. Hanson gives us the meat, blood and all, and leaves the reader with nothing resembling the Homeric image he may have in his or her head. Neither side is let of the hook or championed and both are equally chastised and praised when it call for it. I wasn't particularly familiar with the events of the war other than having read Thucydides as a younger man and recalling a few of the key events (i.e. the disastrous Sicilian invasion) but it was easy enough to follow regardless.

Victor Davis Hanson delivers a concise, readable, and enjoyable account of the Peloponnesian War. The conflict between Delian League (Athens) and the Peloponnesian League lasted twenty-seven years, longer if one takes into account there were actually two Peloponnesian Wars. Hanson's book breaks down the war, its major characters, events, and cultural relevance into an easy to read and understand book. One of the best single volume history of the war available.

This was fascinating to me - maybe because I hadn’t studied much of this war since college. But Hanson does a wonderful job of skirting the typical linear storytelling formula and focusing on different aspects of the war, it’s technology, it’s people, the economies, and culture. It’s really interesting. Sure, there are aspects of it that were confusing to me because I hadn’t read much of the backstory and the names are often difficult. However, I think the writing is good enough to help give the reader some real grasp of the times and motives and players.

Deep Dive into the War's Impact: Hanson does a fantastic job showing how the Peloponnesian War completely changed Greek society. It’s not just a battle-by-battle account—he dives into how the war affected culture, politics, and the people involved.

Readable and Engaging: Even though the subject is complex, Hanson’s writing is surprisingly easy to follow. He breaks down the heavy material in a way that keeps you interested, even if you're not a history buff.

Lessons for Today: The themes of power, strategy, and human nature in the book feel very relevant to today’s world. The parallels to modern conflicts are striking.

Thorough Research: It’s clear Hanson put a lot of work into this book. He weaves together ancient sources and his own insights to give a well-rounded view of the war.

Drawbacks:

A Bit Dense at Times: Some sections get pretty heavy on details, which might feel like a slog if you're not deeply into ancient history or military strategy.

Less Focus on Individual Characters: While the book gives a lot of context about the war as a whole, it doesn’t dive too much into the lives of key figures. If you’re hoping for more on the personal stories of famous generals or leaders, you might feel a bit let down.

Repetitive at Times: Some of Hanson’s points start to feel a little repetitive, especially towards the end. A bit more brevity could’ve made the second half of the book stronger.

Overall, A War Like No Other is a solid, thought-provoking read. If you’re into ancient history or military conflicts, it’s definitely worth picking up—even if it does have a few moments where it slows down.

Lots of fun but breezy and clearly intended for a popular audience. Hanson doesn't seem to have done much of his own research either, so there are probably more thorough treatments out there for those so inclined.

The book is not a discussion of heroics or a narrative history of the war (Hanson says as much himself in the introduction), which is a bit of a limitation for even the modest aims the work aspires to.

This book is absolutely fantastic. VDH does wonderfully explaining to you what the actual war looked like, which can be such a challenge without ever having seen it like we have with modern wars through video, pictures and whatnot. From ships to armies to plagues to horses, VDH outlines each aspect and theater of conflict in painstaking detail.

The lessened focus on chronology was a tad confusing early on given that I knew next to nothing about the war, but it is still embedded enough to where if you keep reading you will understand.

All of the major battles were covered aptly, I would have liked a bit more on certain people, though the big ones (Pericles, Lysander, Alcibiades, Brasidas) are well fleshed out.

VDH also does a great job analyzing the political natures of Sparta/Athens and how those affected the conflict, he explains what the war really reaped for Greece, and his ultimate interpretation of it and of Thucydides is touching and well-argued. I was consistently fascinated and look forward to reading more on the subject and other ancient conflicts. I only hope others can do as excellent a job as VDH does here.

One of the author's goals in this book was to talk about the war from a top-level perspective, skipping the chronology of the battles or events. My eyes glazed over these lists of random facts or situations. I apparently need the structure of chronology in a history book because I much preferred the parts that were explained in sequence (e.g., the siege of Syracuse or Plataea). So while the information presented was interesting, I did not enjoy the format of this book.

relative to now as well