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Hello, Thucydides and Athenians wrote the history of the war between the Peloponnesians

and the Athenians beginning at the moment that it broke out and believing that it would

be a great war and more worthy of relation than any that had preceded it.

This belief was not without its grounds.

So begins one of the earliest and greatest works of history, Thucydides' history of

the Peloponnesian War.

Written in the fifth century BC, it recounts the events of a major conflict in which its

author took part.

Like his predecessor Herodotus, Thucydides has come to be seen as one of the founders

of the Western tradition of history writing.

His rigorous approach to evidence and attempt to provide an objective view of events, provided

a model for later historians, which was influential, many centuries after his death.

Widmitt had discussed the life and work of Thucydides are Paul Cartelich, emeritus professor

of Greek culture, and Agileventus Senior Research Fellow at Claire College Cambridge.

Catherine Harlow, associate professor in classics and intellectual history at the University

of Reading and Neville Morley, professor of ancient history at the University of Bristol.

Paul Cartelich, we don't know precisely when his two Cididius was born at some time

around 460 BC in Athens.

Can you tell us something of the Greek world into which he was born?

...