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
Caroline Bush
Interesting article! The fall Athens was a very interesting topic to read about and one that is tragic due to all the people that died. I like how you went into depth about the details and circumstances surround the death of all the people of Athens. I also like how you went into detail but kept the reader engaged enough for I not to become too boring. Overall I enjoyed this article and found it extremely interesting.
Arianna Kennet
It was interesting reading about the history, or in better words, the falling of Athens. 27 years long was the lasting time of the war and worst still the fact that it was between the two most dominant city-states, Sparta and Athens, what a horrible period of time it must have been. It is sad to see how a sudden plague that had appeared had spread like wildfire and was part of the cause of the falling of Athens.
Maricela Guerra
This was quite informational, there was this story after another story and so on and so forth. The author did a good job with getting all the information and not letting it become too overpowering, with just enough of information to keep me engaged. It was sad to hear what did happen to classical greek, the fact that all the people were infected and just died without any warning. I always thought it was the rats that caused the plague, but who knows?
Rafael Lopez-Rodriguez
Honestly when one thinks of any European country one does not think of the problems of that specific country. One going to Europe for the first time thinks it is perfect for example. But every country has problems. Just like every empire, they fall. This empire had many victories and ruled for a long time. I did not know a reason for the fall of this empire was a plague. What they tell us in history classes is that they lost wars and the government started to get weaker that caused the fall of the empire. Very good article on the Greek empire.
Johnanthony Hernandez
I’ve always found it interesting how one person, one war, could bring the beginning of the end of an era. The Fall of Athens is a good example of that and your article went into the depth of how it all began. Much like modern times, it’s easy for a plague to destroy either a large portion if not all of a civilization, now we have ways of managing out breaks but it can still leave an impact on society. With the death of their general combined with everything, I believe that the Athenian Plague can be used as a learning moment in history about the dangers of waging war and fighting an epidemic back on the home front.
Christopher Sanchez
What a informative article about the downfall of the Athens. It was interesting how no one to this day knows exactly what plague killed one third of the Athens population. Another reason that brought the population down is that they were in a war. So many people were dying and they blamed everything on Pericles even after his death.
Julian Aguero
I truly would have loved to have seen the flourishing city of Athens. The buildings and the culture seems so fascinating even in todays age. Its remarkable that scholars cannot agree on what the plague actually was, even with testimony from survivors. Its like the city state of Athens was cursed and the good of Athens was not allowed to flourish anymore due to the horrible timing of war and the plague. I sincerely would like to see how a place would flourish with a leader like Pericles.
Carlos Sandoval
This article was very interesting and well written. It is crazy how Percicles was once so loved and adored by many, then due to his poor judgement it led to his downfall and being hated by many if not all. During early times, it is super interesting to read about the wars that took place. The weapon of mass destruction to take out athenians was a unknown plague . It seems that now people look for someone to put the blame on and most of the time it is the leader of the country.
Luis Morales
This was an intriguing article because I don’t know that much about the Peloponnesian War and the effects of the outcome it had on Greece. It is sad to see Pericles, one of Athens’s most accomplished leaders, make one mistake, by not seeing the risks of putting so many people behind the city’ walls, be the reason for Athens’s doom. This would cause Pericles to lose the trust of the people. This story of an accomplished leader who is no longer trust by his people can be seen all throughout history.
Timothy ODekirk
I love Classical Greece and the history of Athens and Sparta. About a week ago, I read an article on this site about the Battle of Thermopylae, which was all about Sparta fighting against the Persians. But, in this story, it’s Athens against Sparta in the Peloponesian war. I find it so interesting that the cause for the fall of Athens had mostly to do with a rapid spreading plague. While familiar with ancient Greece and Athens, I was unaware that there was a plague during this time that killed off a significant majority of the population of Athens. This plague caused for the weaking of the Athenians, which eventually led to their destruction. I’ve heard of the Bubonic Plague during the Middle Ages and a bunch of other diseases, but I was not familiar with a widespread disease in ancient Greece with Athens.