The History of the Peloponnesian War Thucydides - 'With icy remorselessness, it puts paid to any notion that the horrors of modern history might be an aberration - for it tells of universal war, of terrorism, revolution and genocide' Tom Holland The long life-and-death struggle between Athens and Sparta plunged the ancient Greek world into decades of war. Thucydides was an Athenian and achieved the rank of general in the earlier stages of the war, and in this detailed, first-hand contemporary account he writes as both a soldier and a historian. He applies a passion for accuracy and a contempt for myth and romance in compiling a factual record of a ruinous conflict that would eventually destroy the Athenian empire. Commonly acknowledged as one of the earliest first-hand written accounts of history, this classic work chronicles the war between Athens and Sparta during the fifth century B.C. Its author, Thucydides, dispassionately and accurately describes the events of this ancient Greek