Between 431 and 404 BC a bitter war known as the Peloponnesian War was fought between the two major powers of ancient Greece – Athens and Sparta – and their respective allies. In this lecture, Dr Gillian Shepherd outlines the events of the Peloponnesian War and looks at two figures critical to our understanding of Greek history in the second half of the 5th century BC: Perikles, a leading statesman of Athens; and one of his biggest fans, the 5th century historian Thucydides to whom we are indebted for his account of the intricacies of the Peloponnesian War.

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