The Origins of the Peloponnesian War

Geoffrey Ernest Maurice de Ste. Croix (February 10, 1910 – February 5, 2000) was a British historian who specialized in examining the classical era from a historical materialist perspective.

De Ste. Croix was born in Macau and was educated at Clifton College, in Bristol. He left school at the age of 15 and become an articled clerk, which allowed him to train as a solicitor, without a degree in law. In 1926-40, De Ste. Croix practised as a solicitor.

He had a strong physique and was a talented tennis player, who once defeated Fred Perry. De Ste. Croix competed at Wimbledon in 1929.

During the Second World War he joined the Royal Air Force, and was stationed for a time in Egypt, where he had the opportunity to expand his knowledge of ancient languages. After the war ended, de Ste. Croix studied ancient history at University College, London. In 1950-53 he taught at the London School of Economics and Birkbeck College, before being appointed a fellow of New College, Oxford. He lived at Oxford for the rest of his life.

Within the circles of classical scholarship, de Ste. Croix — as an exponent of a Marxian epistemological approach — was frequently involved in debate with Sir Moses Finley, an advocate of Weberian societal analysis. The two often exchanged letters and their disagreements were always civil.

The two books for which de Ste. Croix is best known are The Origins of the Peloponnesian War (1972) and The Class Struggle in the Ancient Greek World from the Archaic Age to the Arab Conquests (1982). He was also a noted contributor on the issue of Christian persecution between the reigns of the Roman Emperors Trajan and Diocletian. Of particular note in this regard are the articles written by de Ste. Croix and A. N. Sherwin-White, each challenging the opinions of the other. There were four in total, displaying just the sort of light-hearted banter evident also in de Ste. Croix's correspondence with Moses Finley.