After the Persian Wars, the Greeks wanted to make sure they were ready if the Persians ever returned. The Greek city-states formed the Delian League.  The purpose of the Delian League was to put money into a shared treasury, to have on hand in case of war. It took money to make weapons and ships and to train men. The Greeks wanted to be ready to fund a war instantly. Athens guarded the treasury. Corinth probably would have been a better choice for many reasons. First, Corinth was famous for being good with money. They had a bank. They had a system. And they were not constantly at war with Sparta, as was Athens. Athens and Sparta simply could not get along. But Athens did not ask. They took control of the money and guarded the treasury. At first, Sparta was fine with that. Athens only kept 1/60th of the money to pay for storage and guards and all the costs that went with guarding the money and reporting to the other city-states. In a pretty short amount of time, the treasury grew so large that even 1/6oth of it was a lot of money! Athens grew rich from guarding the treasury.  Sparta grew distrustful. In Sparta's eyes, the Athenians were frivolous, always quoting poetry, and dancing around playing the lyre, when they should be drilling and preparing to defend themselves. Was Athens being honest?  To the Athenians, the Spartan were militant fanatics, The Spartans were always drilling instead of enjoying life. From Athens' point of view, the Spartans had no appreciation of the finer things in life like art and theatre.  The Peloponnesian War did not start over the treasury or its home. It did not start over anything, really. One day, Athens and Sparta were having a silly argument over nothing as usual, only this time, war broke out. The war lasted for 30 years. Finally, Sparta won.  Normally, when Sparta conquered a resisting people, they leveled the town. But the Spartans did not do that to Athens. They did put a king on the throne of Athens, which ended Athens' experiment with democracy. 10 years later, Athens was back as a major power. But Athens never really recovered from the way. She was never the power she once was. About 100 years later, a new power rose in the Greek world - Macedonia - led by 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 The Peloponnesian Wars Peloponnesian War Map   Peloponnesian War Games (great site!) Free Ancient Greek PowerPoints    To learn more about Ancient Greece, click on Apollo