Athens, with its rapidly expanding empire, revolutionized the way the Greeks thought about power and geography: New forms of power, both political and martial, were developed and quickly installed on a formerly unfamiliar scale. Social and political life became vastly different in new and intriguing ways. Overall, there was an increased knowledge about the role of human will as the source of all relevant occurrences. And yet, at the same time, the changing complexity of the system caused many to question whether it could be comprehended by any one individual. These were the sorts of questions that Thucydides set out to answer for his readers.
