But Athens did not discuss who would
guard the treasury. They simply started collecting monies from the
other city-states, as well as from themselves. Corinth was
not happy about this, but they did nothing to stop it. And
Sparta could care less who held the money - they just wanted it
protected.
Pericles was a young and talented
Athenian. He was a leader. He encouraged his people to
build a wall to defend the city of Athens from attack should one
come. At the same time, he traveled to Sparta, and convinced the
Spartans to grant a peace of 30 years, to give everyone in the
Greek world a chance to recover from the Persian Wars. That
success made him famous in the ancient Greek world. Pericles was a
persuasive speaker!
It was a time of great prosperity
for the people of Athens. They were loaded with wealth. They were
at peace. Art, poetry, philosophy - everything
flourished. They built wonderful buildings on the Acropolis, the
rocky hill overlooking Athens. They were happy.
At first, Sparta was fine with
Athens guarding the treasury. Athens only kept 1/60th of the money
pouring in from the various city-states to pay for guards. They
reported promptly to all the city-states on what money had been
paid and by whom. But in a short amount of time, the treasury grew
so large that even 1/60th of it was a lot of money! Athens grew
rich guarding the treasury of the Delian league.
One day, Athens
and Sparta quarreled about something. Fuss fuss fuss - that's was
Athens and Sparta. It was an insignificant
quarrel. It was not over the treasury. It was not over anything
really. But this quarrel started a war between Athens and Sparta that lasted
over 25 years - the Peloponnesian War.
In the third year
of the war, more than half the people in the city of Athens died
– not from fighting - from illness. People from the surrounding
countryside had fled inside the city gates, fleeing Spartan
attacks. The city was not prepared for that many people to live in
Athens. There was not enough food.
They did not have a way to safely remove waste. It was a
mess.
One of those who
died was the young leader Pericles.
Things got a lot
worse after that.
Athens suffered from poor leadership, a lack of food, and
continued illness. They were
starving. The Spartans had the town surrounded. The Athenians
could not get to their crops. Finally,
in April, in the year 404 BCE, Athens surrendered.
Despite the
bitterness, the Spartans were generous. They did not level the
town as Corinth and Thebes wanted them to do. Instead, they made
Athens a satellite state under a Spartan oligarchy. It was the end
of democracy. Ten years later, Sparta gave Athens her independence.
Since her defeat, Athens had regained much of her old strength. But never again was ancient
Athens the golden city she once was.
Still, great
thinkers and great teachers continued to live in Athens. In time,
Athens might have rebuilt to her former glory, only time was
running out for all the Greek city-states. To the north, in the
country of Macedonia, a new king would soon be born. His parents
would name him Alexander. The world would call him Alexander
the Great.
Around 430 BCE - The Peloponnesian War
Sparta's
army has just invaded -
Experience the war from two different sides,
and many points of view, including a dog's!
Peloponnesian
War
