Thucydides' war: accounting for the faces of conflict

The singular and general character of Thucydides’ War can be sighted, if not truly captured, by studying the movements and momentum of the rival alliances’ armies and naval forces and their related and smaller movements. These were sometimes opportunistic, other times deliberate and often swift or ruthless. If war is about power and ambition, chance and circumstance, surprise and opportunism, and pervasive hates and fears, then Thucydides’ War is timely with its focus upon the scale and size of forces committed to this period of protracted and interrupted warring. The study of general phenomenon which constitutes war and any attempt to comprehend or understand the phenomena and dimensions of any war remains as much a qualitative as it is a quantitative challenge. There are no simple answers in this arena. Thucydides’ War is an exploration of the complex interplay of the varying faces of conflict