Packed inside the city walls, the Athenians were safe from Spartan attack, but the people were anything but safe. Farmers had fled their homes in the countryside, crowding into a city already filled with soldiers, sailors, and families. Disease spread through the crowded streets. Bodies lay unburied. Pericles, Athens’s leader and inspiration during its Golden Age, was dead. And worst of all, nearly a century after the Persian Wars began, Persia was finally exacting its revenge on Athens.
The Golden Age of Athens
The Greek victories over Persia in the fifth century BCE helped launch the Golden Age of Athens. Under the leadership of their revered leader Pericles, democracy flourished, and Athens became a center of art, drama, poetry, and philosophy.
The Delian League
Athens founded the Delian League, an alliance of Greek poli that continued the fight against Persia. Although Athens was the wealthiest and most powerful polis in the alliance, the other poli did not trust it with their shared treasury. They met and kept their money on the sacred island of Delos instead. Each polis contributed tribute, money or ships, to support the League’s navy.
In 454BCE, Athens moved the League treasury to its own city. Soon after, the Athenians began constructing the Parthenon, a colossal temple dedicated to Athena. The gleaming temple stood high above Athens on the Acropolis, where everyone could see it. The other poli could not prove that their contributions to the Delian League had paid for the Parthenon, but every passing ship could see the temple.
The Rivalry
Sparta called on the other Greek poli for assistance to quell a helot uprising. The helots were slaves forced to farm the land that fed the Spartans. Athens sent 4000 soldiers, but the Spartans rejected the Athenian support. Thucydides later suggested that the Spartans feared the Athenians might support the rebels. The offended Athenians ended their alliance with Sparta, and when the uprising ended, Athens helped the former helots settle in a new community.
In 432BCE, Athens banned trade with Megara, a polis allied with Sparta. It was only the latest in a long series of insults and threats, so Sparta and its allies went to war to end Athenian dominance of Greece.
Sparta began a campaign against Athens, burning farms and villages in the countryside. Athens was protected by long walls that connected the city with its port, Piraeus. Food and supplies could reach Athens by ship.
The Plague
Pericles ordered the farmers living in the Athenian countryside to move within the city walls for safety. The cramped and unsanitary living conditions inside Athens under siege were an easy target for disease. A plague, or contagious illness, spread through the overcrowded polis. The sickness killed more than 30,000 Athenians, about one-third of the population. Pericles, the leader of Athens during the Golden Age, was among the victims. The Spartan army could not break through the walls, but the plague had found a way in.
Persia’s Revenge
Sparta and Athens agreed to a truce after a series of victories by the Athenian navy. The war had weakened both poli, but the peace did not last. When Athens attacked a Spartan ally, Persia saw an opportunity. Still bitter over nearly a century of defeats by Athens, the Persian Empire supplied Sparta with ships and money to create a powerful navy.
The Plague
Pericles ordered the farmers living in the Athenian countryside to move within the city walls for safety. The cramped and unsanitary living conditions inside Athens under siege were an easy target for disease. A plague, or contagious illness, spread through the overcrowded polis. The sickness killed more than 30,000 Athenians, about one-third of the population. Pericles, the leader of Athens during the Golden Age, was among the victims. The Spartan army could not break through the walls, but the plague had found a way in.
Persia’s Revenge
In 405BCE, the Spartans blockaded Athens and prevented ships from bringing supplies into the city. Within months, the starving Athenians surrendered.
Meanwhile in Macedonia
Conflicts continued among the Greek poli. While they fought one another, Macedonia, a mountainous kingdom north of the Greek peninsula, grew stronger. Years after the Peloponnesian War, King Philip of Macedonia conquered most of Greece. His son, who would become known as Alexander the Great, conquered the Persian Empire and created an empire that stretched more than 3,000 miles, from the Greek peninsula to the Indus River.
Resources
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Mr. Donn has an excellent website that includes a section on Ancient Greece.