THE RIVALRY BETWEEN ATHENS AND SPARTA
The cooperation achieved by the Greek city-states during the Persian wars did not last long. In 477 B.C., Athens organized an alliance called the Delian League. It consisted mainly of city-states in Asia Minor and on Aegean islands. Sparta led the Peloponnesian League, an alliance of city-states in the Peloponnesus. Athens was the strongest naval power in ancient Greece, and Sparta was the strongest land-based power. The two rivals struggled for dominance of the Greek world during the middle and late 400's B.C.
During the 400's B.C., Athens reached its height of power and prosperity and was the center of culture in the Greek world. Pericles was the leading Athenian statesman from 461 to 429 B.C. His career spanned most of the Golden Age, a period that began in 477 B.C. and that became famous for its remarkable literary and artistic accomplishments. During the Golden Age, the Greek dramatists Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides wrote many of their masterpieces. The leading Greek architects and sculptors built the Parthenon on the Acropolis. The Golden Age ended with the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War in 431 B.C. This ruinous war between Athens and Sparta lasted until 404 B.C. and left Athens exhausted. In 430 B.C., a severe plague struck Athens. It killed about a third of the people, including Pericles. Athens lacked able leaders during the rest of the war and finally surrendered. Sparta dominated the Greek world only a short time. Fighting among the city-states resumed, and Thebes defeated Sparta in 371 B.C. The quality of life declined as a result of the continuing warfare. Economic conditions worsened, and violent clashes between rich and poor became frequent. People grew less public-spirited and more self-centered. The city-states lost their vitality. Macedonia, a region in the northern Greece, was becoming stronger as the city-states grew weaker. In 353 B.C., Philip II, king of Macedonia, set out to conquer the other Greek city-states. Philip finall won in 338 B.C., in the Battle of Chaeronea. Philip planned to lead a Greek and army against against Persia. But he was killed by a Macedonian in 336 B.C.