Twenty-five years Herodotus' junior, the general and historian Thucydides began his account of the Peloponnesian War in about 424 BC. Probably written after he was exiled from Athens for failing to capture the city of Amphipolis, Herodotus' work differs significantly from that of Herodotus.

More interested in methodology and expressing history's complex processes, his writings had the stated purpose of giving an accurate portrayal of events so that people might avoid repeating past mistakes. Because he was writing about his present, or very recent past, Thucydides is often credited with being the world's first journalist rather than an historian.