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ThucydidesHistory of the Peloponnesian War
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Book 4 Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Book 4 Summary
Summary: “Athenian Success at Pylos, 425 BC” (Chapters 1-23)
The Peloponnesians conduct their annual invasion of Attica while the Athenians, on their way to Sicily, occupy the Peloponnesian territory of Pylos. Sparta’s King Agis attacks Athens’ fortifications there. Spartan general Brasidas demonstrates courage and daring, but the Athenians repel the Peloponnesians’ assault, trapping a garrison of Spartans on Sphacteria, a nearby island. Anxious to ensure the release of their men, Sparta sends envoys to Athens to negotiate for peace. However, in a speech to the Athenian assembly, Cleon urges the city to demand Sparta return territories captured in the previous war in exchange for their men.
Summary: “Final Victory at Pylos, 425 BC” (Chapters 24-41)
In Sicily, the Syracusans prepare to attack the Athenians at Rhegium, while in Sphacteria, Athens’ siege continues without a conclusive result. The Athenians become angry that Cleon encouraged them to reject the Spartans’ peace offer. Cleon blames the failure on Nicias, leading him to cede command to Cleon, who then leads the Athenian allies to victory in the Battle of Sphacteria. The Spartans surrender, shocking the Hellenic world, which had expected the Spartans to fight to the last.
Summary: “Further Athenian Successes, 425-4 BC” (Chapters 42-57)
Nicias leads Athens and its allies in an attack on Corinth. The Corcyrean revolution ends, and in the Peloponnese, the Athenians capture the island of Cythera and the town of Thyra. Surrounded by enemy combatants, Sparta becomes desperate.
Summary: “Peace in Sicily, 425 BC” (Chapters 58-65)
Disparate Sicilian factions that had been fighting each other gather for a peace conference, undercutting Athens’ intentions to take control of the region. Thucydides reports Syracusan leader Hermocrates’ speech urging the Sicilians to set aside their differences and join forces to fight Athenian aggression.
Summary: “Fighting at Megara, 424 BC” (Chapters 66-74)
A faction in Megara plots with Athens to surrender the city, but the plot is discovered before it can be realized. Battles between Athenians and Peloponnesians are inconclusive until Brasidas arrives. Megarans on both sides wait to see who will gain the upper hand before declaring their loyalty. Brasidas triumphs, and the Megarans open the city gates for him. Those loyal to Athens slip away. Exiles are recalled with promises of no recriminations, but the Megarans who gain power kill their personal enemies, along with those who appear to have collaborated with Athens.
Summary: “Brasidas in Thrace, 424 BC” (Chapters 75-88)
Brasidas marches quickly through Thessaly to Thrace at the invitation of Macedonian, Chalcidian, and Thracian cities that either have revolted or wish to revolt. Addressing the assembly at Acanthus, whose loyalties are divided, Brasidas assures them he has come to liberate, not harm, Hellas. Fearing the Spartans will destroy their crops, which are planted outside the city’s defensive walls, the Acantheans agree to revolt from Athens.
Summary: “Athenian Defeat at Delium, 424-3 BC” (Chapters 89-101)
Athens invades Boeotia and occupies the temple at Delium. The Boeotians win the Battle of Delium, forcing the Athenians to retreat and pursuing them until nightfall hampers their efforts. Despite Athenian attempts to justify their occupation of the temple, the Boeotians refuse to return Athens’ dead until they vacate it. When they refuse, the Boeotians attack and recover Delium.
Summary: “Brasidas Captures Amphipolis, 424-3 BC” (Chapters 102-116)
Aided by “treachery among the guards” and both “stormy weather and the unexpectedness of his attack,” Brasidas and his Thracian allies capture the Athenian colony of Amphipolis (327). Thucydides, the text’s author and an Athenian general, is called to provide reinforcements. Eager to claim the city before the reinforcements arrive, Brasidas offers favorable terms for peace, and the city surrenders to him before Thucydides arrives. Amphipolis’ fall alarms the Athenians, who fear more revolts. In Chalcidice, an Athenian garrison holds Torone. With insider help, Brasidas enters the city. The Athenians try to repel an attack, erecting “a wooden tower on top of a house,” but they put too much weight on it, and it collapses (333). Thinking the sound of the collapsing tower is Brasidas’ troops storming the fortification, the Athenians flee back to their warships, and Amphipolis falls to the Peloponnesians.
Summary: “Armistice Between Athens and Sparta, 423 BC” (Chapters 117-123)
Athens and Sparta establish a one-year armistice. Athens’ motivation is their need to shore up their alliances against Brasidas’ military successes while Sparta hopes “respite from hardship and toil” will make Athens more amenable to peace (334). Meanwhile, Brasidas travels in Thrace, winning over Scion and Torone. A dispute about when Scion revolted—before or after the armistice was declared—causes the truce to collapse. Mende revolts against Athens, and Brasidas receives its people as allies.
Summary: “End of the Ninth Year of War, 423 BC” (Chapters 124-135)
Brasidas intrigues against Athens with Perdiccas, the Macedonian king. Returning to Torone, he finds Mende in Athenian hands. The Athenians next siege Scione. Perdiccas makes peace with Athens and, to prove his loyalty, prevents reinforcements from reaching Brasidas. The Thebans demolish the Thespians’ walls. Argos’ Temple of Hera burns to the ground due to its priestess’s negligence. The Mantineans and Tegeans fight an inconclusive battle at Laodocium. At winter’s end, Brasidas tries unsuccessfully to seize Potidaea.
Book 4 Analysis
Book 4 follows the events in the seventh through ninth years of the war. These years are marked by military maneuvering throughout the region and conclude with the fall of Amphipolis, which sows the seeds for the Peace of Nicias in 422-21. Neither Athens nor Sparta emerges as a conclusive victor, as both achieve both success and failure depending on the theater of war.
Though the Athenians continue to achieve military successes in 425-24, they experience more internal strife through the conflicts between Cleon and Nicias. Their hostile debates demonstrate that Athens lacks a strong leader like Pericles, who was impervious to personal flattery and acted decisively to promote the city’s prosperity and security. Thucydides demonstrates that internal strife recurs across time and setting, inflicting both individual cities and larger regions. In Athens, the plague and weak leaders lead to civil unrest. Conflicts between democrats and oligarchs foment internal strife in Megara, and in Sicily, Hermocrates argues civil discord among the region’s various cities will aid Athenian conquest. Hermocrates’ plea to Sicilians that they join forces to repel Athenian intrigues and potential invasion recalls the alliance between Sparta and Athens that successfully repelled foreign invasion by Persia.
The Peloponnesians’ victory in Amphipolis represents a decisive victory, and it is one that impacts Thucydides, who served as an Athenian general. He was tasked with bringing reinforcements to prevent the fall of Amphipolis but failed to arrive in time. As he discusses in Book 5, Athens exiled him to Thrace, and it was due to his exile that he was able to research the war from both sides. This episode presents an interesting example of how chance and human choices serve as causal agents. Had Thucydides and his forces arrived in time to save Amphipolis, had Athens not exiled him, had Athens sped to victory in the larger conflict, perhaps Thucydides would not have had the opportunity to engage in his inquiry. Thus Thucydides’ own experience contributes evidence to the notion that chance and human choices impact outcomes.
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