History of the Peloponnesian War | Characters & Character Analysis

History of the Peloponnesian War Important People

Thucydides provides very little biographical data about the majority of individuals within his history and thus the following descriptions are of necessity concise. Many modern editions of Thucydides' history provide some concise biographies for prominent individuals.

Thucydides

Thucydides, son of Olorus of Halimous, born c. 460 BC and died c. 395 BC, was an ancient Greek historian and the author of the present work. He is considered by many scholars to be the first to use rigorous methodology in the presentation of history. Very little is known of his life beyond a few glimpses provided by his text itself. Thus, he contracted the plague but recovered; he owned gold mines in Thrace; and he served as an Athenian general in Thasos during 424 BC. His ostensible failure to defend Amphipolis from conquest by Brasidas resulted in his exile for twenty years. The book under consideration—the only surviving work of Thucydides—was clearly...
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