An Athenian general of the fifth century B.C. chronicles the disastrous 27-year conflict between Athens and Sparta. Thucydides traces the conflict's roots and provides detailed, knowledgeable analyses of battles and the political atmosphere.

In the course of the Peloponnesian War, Athenian general Thucydides was dismissed and banished for his delay in assisting the besieged city of Amphipolis. His military failure and disgrace ended in a triumph for posterity: the retired commander recorded a firsthand account of the events of the war, the first true historical narrative of Western literature.