From: Britannica
The Decline of Athens The Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) The growth of Athenian power aroused the jealousy of Sparta and other independent Greek states and the discontent of Athens’s subject states. The result was a war that put an end to the power of Athens. The long struggle, called the Peloponnesian War, began in 431 bc. It was a contest between a great sea power, Athens and its empire, and a great land power, Sparta and the military coalition it led, called the Peloponnesian League. The plan of Pericles in the beginning was not to fight at all, but to let Corinth and Sparta spend their money and energies while Athens conserved both. He had all the inhabitants of Attica come inside the walls of Athens and let their enemies ravage the plain year after year, while Athens, without losses, harried their lands by sea. However, the bubonic plague broke out in besieged and overcrowded Athens. It killed one-fourth of the population, including Pericles, and left the rest without spirit and without a leader. The first phase of the Peloponnesian War ended with the outcome undecided. Almost before they knew it, the Athenians were whirled by the unscrupulous politician Alcibiades, a nephew of Pericles, into the second phase of the war (414–404 BC). Wishing for a brilliant military career, Alcibiades persuaded Athens to undertake a large-scale expedition against Syracuse, a Corinthian colony in Sicily. The Athenian armada was destroyed in 413 BC, and the captives were sold into slavery. This disaster sealed the fate of Athens. The allied Aegean cities that had remained faithful to Athens now deserted to Sparta, and the Spartan armies laid Athens under siege. In 405 bc the whole remaining Athenian fleet of 180 triremes (oar-powered three-decked warships) was captured in the Hellespont at the battle of Aegospotami. Besieged by land and powerless by sea, Athens could neither raise grain nor import it, and in 404 BC its empire came to an end. The fortifications and long walls connecting Athens with Piraeus were destroyed, and Athens became a vassal, or subject state, of triumphant Sparta. Let’s Review! 1.
What factors led to the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War, and what were the main opposing forces in the conflict?
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