History of the Peloponnesian War

Thucydides is believed to have lived from c. 460-400 BC. He was an Athenian general who served during the Peloponnesian War. After failing in his mission to save Amphipolis from the Spartans in 423, he was exiled from Athens for twenty years. He likely spent his exile in Thrace, where his family owned goldmines. His exile and family connections provided him the time and income to travel broadly, collecting eyewitness accounts of the war from multiple perspectives. Scholars approach Thucydides from widely-divergent perspectives. Some believe he was fairly even-handed, while others argue he betrayed a pro-Athenian bias. Some trust his text as an accurate-if-embellished history while others assert it should be treated as a literary text, citing the intersections between his narrative style and that of epic poetry.

Most historical knowledge about Thucydides is derived from what he says about himself in The History of the Peloponnesian War. In the history’s first sentence, he announces himself as an Athenian who decided to write the history of the war between Athens and Sparta, believing it would be “a great war” and one worth writing about: “Thucydides the Athenian wrote the history of the war fought between Athens and Sparta” (35).