Thucydides
History of the Peloponnesian War
The inventor of political history. His account of the war between Athens and Sparta is the first work of history that refuses myth, divine causation, and moralizing in favor of rigorous analysis of power, self-interest, and human nature under pressure. The Melian Dialogue and the Plague of Athens remain unsurpassed.
Key works
- History of the Peloponnesian War~411 BC— Power, empire, and catastrophe — unfinished