The Golden Age of Greece was short
lived. Athens and Sparta were both powerful poli, and each wanted
to spread 
their
way of life. Sparta attacked Athens in 431BC,
beginning the brutal Pelloponesian
War.
It lasted 27 years.
One out four people in Athens died
shortly after the war
began, but not because they were defeated in battle. A plague,
or great sickness, spread through Athens. When the war started,
people from around the city crowded into Athens. The cramped and
dirty living conditions were an easy target for disease. Sickness
claimed the life of Pericles,
the leader
of Athens.
Once Pericles
died, the people began to listen to demagogues. Demagogues were
bad leaders who appealed to people's emotions rather than logic.
Sparta eventually defeated Athens by building a blockade around
the walls of the city. The people of Athens could not leave to get
supplies or food from the countryside. Faced with starvation, Athens
surrendered to Sparta in 404BC.
Athens' Golden Age was now long gone.
Great thinkers and teachers lived in Athens during and after the
Pelloponesian
War, and self-rule eventually returned to the city, but the era
of support for new ideas and the spirit of democracy had passed.
Ancient Greece