Head of Thucydides

myminifactory

This is a marble portrait of Thucydides (460-395), a renowned Athenian general and historian who left an indelible mark on ancient Greek history. Thucydides played a pivotal role in both the Peloponnesian War, a brutal conflict that ravaged Greece from 431-404 BC between Athens and Sparta, and its written record. His failure to secure Amphipolis, a strategic city in northern Greece, against the Spartans led to his twenty-year exile from Athens and a complete disconnection from politics. Thucydides revolutionized historical writing by attributing war's causes to human actions rather than divine intervention, meticulously consulting eyewitness accounts and written documents during his research. Tragically, he seems to have passed away before completing his magnum opus, as the final years of the conflict remain unrecorded.