This chapter examines the consequences of the Peloponnesian War for Athens and Greece. In the course of this analysis I develop the outline for a “quasi-unitarian” reading of Thucydides. I describe four levels to the history, each of whose questions and answers move readers to the next level. To access the deeper levels of the text we must go beyond the explicit and implicit arguments of the narrative, speeches and dialogues to “signs” (sēmata) embedded in their language and structure. Thucydides must also be read against the Greek oral tradition and fifth-century writings, including Herodotus' history, the Hippocratic corpus and the tragedies of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides.

The first level of the text is about interest, justice and their relationship. The analysis of the origins of war in Book I introduces a tension between interest and justice that becomes increasingly pronounced as the war unfolds.