Born at Athens, B.C. 471. Died (place uncertain) B.C. 395. Aged 76.]
This great historian, holding military command in Thrace, suffered
Amphipolis to be surprised and taken by the Spartan general, Brasidas;
and for this misfortune was banished by his countrymen during the space
of twenty years. It would have been a greater misfortune for the world
had Thucydides proved a warier soldier; for it was during his exile,
that he collected with infinite care the materials of his immortal
history. That history chronicles, in eight books, the events of twenty
out of the twenty-seven years of the Peloponnesian War:--a record of
most interesting facts. Where political and moral observations occur,
they reveal great knowledge of human character and motives. The style is
pregnant, precise, and severely simple. Demosthenes is said to have
copied the entire history many times with his own hand as a lesson of
composition. The principal actors in the war were the historian’s books
of reference. As an historical monument the work is matchless. It has
been always believed that Thucydides came to a violent end, but it is
not known whether he died at Athens, or in Thrace.