In our investigation of book 2 we h

In our investigation of book 2 we have to this point concentrated on a structure that the reader gradually detects in the account of the first years of war. On a first reading, however, attention is more likely to focus on a sequence of three famous passages: the Periclean Funeral Oration, the account of the Great Plague, and Pericles' last speech to the Athenian assembly. These are powerfully written passages and occur in rapid sequence, with only minor episodes between them. And they are of great importance for the understanding of the second book.