The War That Broke Greece

The Peloponnesian War (431–404 BC) pitted Athens against Sparta in a 27-year death match that devastated the Greek world.

• Athens had naval supremacy and vast wealth
• Sparta had the dominant land army and patience
• A plague hit Athens in 430 BC, killing roughly a third of the city, including its greatest leader, Pericles
• In 415 BC, Athens bet everything on a massive invasion of Sicily — and lost almost everything

Sparta finally won in 404 BC with Persian money, bankrolled by the same empire Greece had united to defeat 75 years earlier. Greece beat Persia together, then tore itself apart.