The Peloponnesian War: How Athens and Sparta Destroyed Each Other

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Less than 50 years after Athens and Sparta fought side by side against Persia, they spent nearly three decades tearing each other apart in a war that left both cities permanently weakened and reshaped the entire Greek world.

Two very different superpowers

Athens built its power on naval dominance and a maritime empire of tribute-paying allies; Sparta built its power on a feared land army and a rigid, militarized society. The war between them was as much a clash of systems as of armies.

The plague that changed everything

A devastating plague swept through overcrowded wartime Athens early in the conflict, killing a large share of the population including the statesman Pericles — a loss that removed the steadying hand guiding Athenian strategy at a critical moment.

The Sicilian catastrophe

Athens’ disastrous expedition to conquer Sicily, launched partly on overconfidence, ended in the near-total destruction of its army and navy — the single event historians point to as the war’s true turning point against Athens.

Sparta eventually won, but the victory came at a cost that left every major Greek city-state too weakened to resist the rising power of Macedon a generation later.

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