Thucydides

Thucydides,
author of the (incomplete) History of the War (Peloponnesian War) between Athens and Sparta, 431–404 BC, in eight books.

Life

He was born probably between 460 and 455 BC: he was general (stratēgos) in 424 (4. 104) and must then have been at least 30 years old; while his claim in 5. 26. 5 that he was of years of discretion from beginning to end of the war perhaps suggests that he was not much more than grown up in 431. He probably died about 400. He shows no knowledge of 4th-cent. events. The revival of Athenian sea power under Conon and Thrasybulus, from 394 on, made the decision of Aegospotami (405: see Athens, history) less decisive than it seemed to Thucydides (compare e.g. 5. 26. 1 with Xenophon Hellenica 5. 1. 35). Of the three writers who undertook to complete his History, only Xenophon took his view that the story ended in 404 (or 401). [The entire page is 5517 words long]

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