Thucydides was an Athenian historian and general best known for his account of the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta. Born around 460 BC, he lived through much of the conflict and drew on direct observation as well as testimony from participants. His work examines military events, political decisions and the pressures that war placed on states and individuals.

In 424 BC, Thucydides served as an Athenian general in the northern Aegean. He arrived too late to prevent the Spartan commander Brasidas from taking Amphipolis, although he helped secure the nearby port of Eion. Thucydides subsequently spent about twenty years in exile, which he said gave him opportunities to investigate events involving both sides of the war.

His History of the Peloponnesian War emphasised careful inquiry, competing accounts and explanations of cause and effect. The surviving narrative ends in 411 BC and was left unfinished. Thucydides’ precise date and circumstances of death remain uncertain.