Sophocles (496 BC-406 BC), one of the great Greek dramatists of the ancient world, was born to a wealthy family at Colonus, near Athens. He had a charmed childhood, was highly educated and a personal friend of prominent statesmen, and, as a good Athenian, served faithfully as a treasurer and general for Athens when it was expanding its empire and influence. Though he wrote approximately 123 plays, only seven tragedies survive in their entirety: Ajax, Antigone, Trachinian Women, Oedipus the King, Electra, Philoctetes, and Oedipus at Colonus. With Sophocles, Greek tragedy reached its most characteristic form; he frequently beat out rivals Aeschylus and Euripides in annual drama competitions.