When one pictures a Greek city-state, one pictures a beautiful city with a great leader to guide it, to give it courage in battle, and most importantly, to give its people hope. This Greek city-state was Athens, and this great leader was Pericles. Born in Athens in 495 B.C.E., Pericles was a prominent and influential statesman, orator, and general of the very powerful Athens.1 Pericles was a strong believer in the arts, literature, and philosophy. He was responsible for the full development of the Athenian democracy that shaped Athens’ politics and culture.2 Although Athens was enjoying a golden age while led by Pericles, this soon came to an end and thus began the fall of Athens.
That fall began in 431 B.C.E. when the 27 year long Peloponnesian War began. This long and bloody war was between the two most dominant Greek city-states, Athens and Sparta, along with each side’s allies. The war began when conflicts arose after the Greco-Persian Wars. Both Athens and Sparta longed for dominance, and in May of 431 B.C.E., war broke out between them. Pericles knew Athens’ strength was in their navy, so his strategy was to avoid Sparta on land, because he knew that on land, Athens would be no match for Sparta. What he failed to realize, however, is that crowding the population of Athens behind its Long Walls would be deadly if disease ever broke out in Athens while Sparta had it besieged.
In an attempt to please his people and praise those who had fallen in the war, Pericles gave a funeral oration in which he spoke highly of those who had given their lives for the democracy. In his speech, he tried to regain the peoples’ trust and remind them of the many victories they had had that were led by him. Pericles’ praised the Athenian people and spoke of how proud he was of them and how far they had gotten thus far. He gave Athens the title of being a model for the other surrounding Greek city-states because Athens showed its dominance. He also went on to compare Athens to Sparta. Sparta focused only on their strong and strict military whereas Athens focused on its city and the helping of each other as one in times of need, which only makes them stronger because they are “just as brave” as Pericles states.3
After cruising around Peloponnese as Pericles had ordered, he arrived in Attica where the plague began to appear among the Athenians. Sickness spread fast and there was nothing the Athenians could do to stop it. Physicians became infected and died much faster than other people because they were exposed to the sick more often. Not many survived this plague, but Thucydides, a general and historian of Athens, lived after having contracted the plague and lived to tell the tale of the Peloponnesian War. His history of this war is contained in The History of the Peloponnesian War. In this book, he writes of the chronological order of the war and the downfall of Athens due to the plague. Thucydides writes that while the Peloponnesians invaded Attica, the Athenians left and fled to their ships. Countless Athenian people were dying in battle and from the plague. The Peloponnesians feared the disease and watched as burials went on, but remained about forty days in Attica ravaging through the town.4
After the second invasion of Athens by the Peloponnesians, the Athenians began putting more blame on Pericles for declaring and leading a war that brought great suffering to the people of Athens. They began blaming Pericles for the death of one-quarter of its population. After about two years, the great general and leader of Athens was no longer wanted and was not selected to continue being their general the following year.5 What no one knew, however, and what is still a debate to this day, is what the plague really was. No one knows what disease or diseases were responsible for this plague. There have been ongoing studies to find what diseases could have possibly been the cause of the numerous deaths. Although some results have been discovered, there is no clear answer to the ongoing question: what was the infamous death that killed a third of the population of Athenians? The most common and most discussed diseases among scholars for the most reasonable explanations for the plague include: bubonic plague, influenza, typhoid fever, smallpox, epidemic typhus, and measles.6 Any of these diseases could be the cause of the plague, but there is not enough microbiologic evidence to pinpoint which disease or diseases specifically were the cause of the Athenian plague. This lack of evidence is the reason for the constant disagreement between scholars.
The plague, along with the battles fought during the war, killed a great portion of the people of Athens, and as the Athenians became weaker and weaker, they received even worse news. Pericles contracted the plague, and unlike Thucydides, he did not recover and in fact died in 429 B.C.E. leaving Athens without a general, and to fend for themselves. After his death, the government of Athens became unstable and was not able to get organized in order to continue fighting the war. With the constant invasions, people still dying from the plague, and the death of Pericles, the Athenians continued fighting until a decade and a half later, they surrendered. By the time the Peloponnesian War ended in 404 B.C.E., Athens had fallen leaving Greece weak and fractured. The fall of Athens set off chain reaction for the fall of Sparta, then eventually, the end of Classical Greece.
- New World Encyclopedia, April 2015, s.v. “Pericles.” ↵
- Encyclopædia Britannica , April 2017, s.v. “Pericles,” by David Malcolm Lewis. ↵
- Salem Press Encyclopedia, January 2017, s.v. “Analysis: Pericles’ Funeral Oration,” by Charles Forster Smith. ↵
- Thucydides, and Richard Crawley, The History of the Peloponnesian War (Auckland, N.Z.: The Floating Press, 2008), 64. ↵
- Salem Press Encyclopedia, January 2016, s.v. “Peloponnesian War,” by Jeffrey Buller. ↵
- Burke A. Cunha M.D., The Cause of the Plague of Athens: plague, typhoid, typhus, smallpox, or measles? (Infectious Disease Clinics of North America, 2004), 30. ↵
56 comments
Olivia Santiago
This article gives excellent insight to the fall of Athens, bringing up many thought-provoking ideas about how and why such a powerful civilization came to such a swift end. Did the Athenians grow too confident in their ability to defend their territory? What was the plague that wiped out so many people and how did it originate? As we read and analyze for ourselves, we begin to answer these in depth questions, and the impacts they have on modern society.
Diego Terrazas
I feel as if Pericle did all he could given the circumstances. I do wonder how this mysterious disease spread among the masses. At least Pericle stayed by his people and died for his city-state, given he could have easily fled. I wonder how they related these unfortunate events to their relationship with the gods. The Athenians and Spartans have much of my respect and it is saddening to read how they ended.
Christopher Hohman
Nice article. The fall of classical Athens was really terrible. Perhaps if the Athenians had not become so greedy then they could have delayed their fall. It is unfortunate that the people of Athens suffered from a terrible plague. It is also very interesting that historians do not know which plague Athens suffered from, but they do offer some interesting explanations for which disease it may have been. The fall of Athens marked the end of Classical Greece.
Annissa Noblejas
The word ‘plague’ is an umbrella term used in historical times to explain the rapid death of a population, in many examples what disease is truly wiping out the Athenians is not known. Unfortunately it was not medically common knowledge that confining a great population within a space was a recipe for disaster. I believe Pericles did the best he could, given the knowledge of his times and the standard of siege warfare.
Alexander Manibusan
Sometimes we forget that humans aren’t the only ones that play in the game of history. The other player in it is nature itself. Without the plague, the war between Athens and Sparta would have turned out differently, and it is possible that Athens might have had a chance to win the war. Let’s not forget to mention other times of disaster, such as the Black Death or even the outbreak of smallpox that eliminated most of the Native Americans. While man certainly does mold history, the one who determines how the mold is finished is nature.
Noah Bolhuis
It is always interesting to see how a great civilization crashes. It seems like it is always an extremely quick fall, conquered by an outside force over the course of many years, or self inflicted. The fall of Athens seems like it could fall into all three categories. Even though the Peloponnesian War lasted 27 years, the fall did not last long after that. There were many outside forces that set the ball in motion that led to their fall. With the constant invasions and sieges, Athens got weaker. Then the plague was killing off a great deal of people, including Pericles. The self inflicted wound would have been their desire to continue the unwinnable war for so long.
Madison Downing
I liked that this article was short and sweet but still went over in great detail what actually caused the great city of Athens to fall. Just learning this in class it is great to be able to understand what happened the led the events that caused Athens and Sparta to start fighting for dominate control. Of course personally I was rooting for Sparta because I didn’t care for the snobby attitude the ancient Greeks were known for. This was a great and enjoyable article and I really liked it a lot!
Mariah Cavanaugh
Great article! Disease brought down so many ancient societies and people. This was not something that could be counted on the way martialing the biggest army, having the best strategy, or the strongest war machines could, and yet it helped topple societies time and again. I did not know that Athens suffered this fate. I thought that weariness from war alone wore them down, but it seems that their troubles were multi-faceted and ultimately they could not hold out.
Kristy Feather
I love the mysteries that are uncovered by history, and I think this article does a really great job as showing the mystery of Athens. It was such a powerful city and yet it fell so hard, I didn’t know it was because of an illness until now, which brings me to my other thought;isn’t it fascinating to see how something this in history just can’t be solved. No matter how hard historians look, we just can not figure out what disease killed so many of the Athenians.
Esperanza Rojas
This is something I never knew about, the fall of the Athens, nor did I know that it had such a big impact on it. This is the best example of someone that believes isolating their people is the best way to solve a problem but ends up backfiring on them. It was sad to hear that these people fought to only die to a disease that happened because they were isolated, but while reading this, I thought back to what happened to the Native Americans of where many died due to blankets filled with chicken pox, and I have a suspicion that maybe Sparta had something to do with the cause of the disease spreading.