The Soldier's Choice

In the pitch of battle, according to Pericles, the Athenian citizen-soldier chooses to die rather than leave undefended the democratic principles that Athens embodies: this defines The Soldier's Choice . The great war between Sparta and Athens dominated the Greek world for twenty-seven years (431–404 BCE) and shaped much of the culture it bequeathed to posterity. The Sparta of that era did not produce writers, but Athens did: Thucydides, an unsuccessful general in the war, became its first histo