Book excerpt: This original book looks in detail at arguably the two most significant characters on either side in the middle years of the great Peloponnesian War and the showdown in and around Amphipolis that led to both their deaths in 422 BC. The Spartan commander Brasidas was already a veteran of many campaigns when he headed for the strategically important northern theatre. Cleon was the key hawk in the Athenian assembly who led his fellow citizens in a major effort to counter the impact that Brasidas was having in the north. The two finally clashed in battle outside the Athenian colony of Amphipolis which Brasidas had by then captured (the great historian Thucydides being exiled for his failure to defend it). The Spartans won but both men died in the fighting, their passing having far-reaching consequences for the subsequent course of the war. By focussing on the fatal duel between Brasidas and Cleon, and drawing on all available sources to supplement Thucydides' seminal account, Mike Roberts offers a valuable new perspective on the Peloponnesian War.