Xenophon's Hellenica

Just finished reading this today. It ends with the inconclusive battle of Ephorus, which saw the Thebans pitted against Sparta and Athens. The whole Peloponnesian war seems to be a history of side-switching and diplomacy even moore mind-boggling and confusing than the Wars of the Roses. Which is pretty impressive.

I read Xenophon as I'd enjoyed Thucydides so much, but I'll have to ask my Classics mates for someone to read on the last stages of the war and the beginning of Macedonian domination.

There's definitely a megagame in all this reading I've done.

Another exciting part of the text was the involvement of the Syracusans, who seem to have stayed loyal to Sparta after the disastrous Athenian expedition to Syracuse under Alcibiades. They send several forces to support Sparta and her allies, and one of these forces includes 'Celts and Iberians' which says a lot about the use of mercenaries in the western Med. What I find difficult to understand is why the Greeks didn't use the Carthaginians as allies, like they did the Persians. Perhaps both Thucydides and Xenophon were a bit embarassed about it. Xenophon certainly didn't like those that trafficked with the Mede...