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
Raymond Davila
This article was interesting in the way that I found out that the person in control of Athens during its fall was named Pericles and that his judgement led to Athens overcrowding. The overcrowding would in turn lead to the rapid spread of disease and the eventual fall of the Athens during its war with Sparta. Also how the people placed the blame for losing the war on Pericle.
Brandon Martinez
Being that Athens was one of the most advanced cities in history, it is shocking that they fell so quickly. With Pericles leading this city through so many battles and helping this city-state becoming so powerful, how was he so hopeless in this war? With Athens great leader disappointing them and being a very strong democratic society, it is strange that the city did not just elect a new leader to help them through this demanding time.
Jacob Johnson
I personally enjoyed this detailed article, I appreciated the distinguishing characteristics of both Greek city-states Athens and Sparta. Based on the description, the leader of Athens Pericles seemed like a very ideal general taking nearly everything into account while combating the Spartans. Pericles couldn’t have planned for the outbreak that would bring Athens to its knees, nor could he or anyone else stop the epidemic. I feel pity for Pericles as he had to protect Athens and raise the people’s morale, while constantly being blamed for the plague, only to end up as another victim to the mysterious disease.
Andrew Dominguez
This article was very interesting, due to how Pericles was loved, yet would eventually be hated. Pericles had a had created a strong foundation for Athens, and was praised by the people, until the war with Sparta had began.In my opinion it was necessary to enter war, to show dominance, and that Athens wasn’t to be messed with. I liked when he was being mocked, he would refer Athens to being a model city. By doing this he would allow the citizens to have a sense of pride, which would make they rally behind his decisions. What i don’t understand is how the citizens could betray the leader for something he had no control over, a disease that still can’t be identified.
Cristian Medina-Lopez
This article was very well written as to having a good approach to this topic which is known by many. I feel like the reasons why this city-state came to a fall is something that not only would happen to people of that time, but could also happen to any country in our days. I feel like we should take this into consideration when taking actions or trying to resolve things in the future.
Cherice Leach
Good job on describing Athens before it’s fall and Athens after it’s fall. I think it’s quite strange we still don’t know what plague killed the people of Athens. Although we did not have technology to figure it out back then, I’m sure we have the technology now it’s just I’m not sure if we have enough evidence. It’s interesting how in the end the people of Athens started to blame Pericles and then after his death, they suffered even more.
Zeresh Haman
This is a really interesting article. Everyone has heard of Athens, but i have never heard the story of how the famous city fell. It is crazy to think that a city as great as Athens fell due to something like disease. This article did an amazing job of explaining the events in great detail and in the order that they happened.
Cameron Ramirez
When we went over the Greek city-states in high school I was always very fascinated with Athens. It would have been amazing to see the city-state flourish like it did back in the day. I have always wanted to travel to Greece to see the old ruins of the once great Greek city-states. Your article was very informative and gave more information on how Athens great rule ended. I also liked how you used the paintings to convey your story.
Evelin Joseph
We have just finished learning about the Greek empire, Athens, its great ruler, Pericles, and the Peloponnesian War, so to learn more about the topic through this article was really great! We learned about the bloody Peloponnesian War that was a conflict between the Athens and Spartans, but I never before know that disease played such a big part in the Athenians’ demise. I didn’t know that even Pericles contracted the plague and that it even resulted in his death. Through this article, even though it focused primarily on Athens, I was able to learn that through the fall of Athens, Classical Greece also came to an end.
Erik Shannon
This is a very interesting article. I did not have that much previous knowledge on the fall of Athens before reading this article. I did not know that a disease could cause a collapse of a whole city. The disease came at a bad time because everyone just blamed everything on Pericles. Overall, this was a very well written article.