History of the Peloponnesian WarWritten four hundred years before the birth of Christ, this detailed contemporary account of the long life and death struggle between Athens and Sparta stands an excellent chance of fulfilling its author's ambitious claim. Thucydides himself (c. 460 400 BC) was an Athenian and achieved the rank of general in the earlier stages of the war. He applied thereafter a passion for accuracy and a contempt for myth and romance in compiling this factual record