An Athenian general who served in the war, Thucydides relates the invasions, treacheries, plagues, amazing speeches, ambitions, virtues, and emotions of the storied conflict between Athens and Sparta in a work that has the feel of a tragic drama. Though in part an analysis of war policy, <i>The History of the Peloponnesian War</i> is also a dramatic account of the rise and fall of Athens by an Athenian man.