THUCYDIDES

Thucydides

Thucydides

Thucydides was born in the ancient city of Athens around the year 460 BCE to a wealthy, aristocratic family. At that time, Athens was the center of a flourishing empire, kept under tight control with the help of an impressive military force hardly matched by any of the other powers in the region. Around the year 431 BCE, however, these powers rallied around the rival city-state of Sparta. The war that subsequently broke out between the two city-states and their allies—the Peloponnesian War—raged on and off for more than 25 years (Abbott, 1970). The conflict eventually came to an end with ...