Sophcles lived around 496-406 B.C. He wrote 123 plays, but only seven of them survived. When Sophocles was writing, Athens had changed into a imperial force that acted tyrannically. Before he died, Athens had been defeated by Sparta.
He seemed to sense the inevitable doom that awaited Athens and expressed this in his writings, which often depicted individuals who helplessly marched toward a disaster that they were helpless to prevent.