Summary of my Project

Today in class I presented my project on the Peloponnesian War. I told people about why it happened and what I think is the most important happening during the war, the plague. The war was against Sparta and Athens. The idiot who thought it would e a good idea to fight Sparta was Pericles. He was the leading personality in Athens. Pericles acted boldly and successfully as commander of the Athenian forces. The letter of the treaty of peace with Sparta, was signed in 446 B.C., six years before the war started. This treaty was supposed last for 30 years though. In 431 B.C.. The war started right as Athens was at its peak politically and economically and people knew that a war with Sparta would take it all away. The Peloponnesian War lasted 27 years. Athens signs a treaty (Peace of Nicias), setting things back to how they were before the war. Under the advice of Alcibiades (an Athenian statesman), Sparta invades Attica. Athens, which had started the war with the advantage in naval battle, loses this advantage to the Corinthians and Syracusans. Sparta then used Persian gold from Cyrus to build her fleet and destroys the Athenian fleet at the Battle of Aegosotami. Athens surrendered in 404 B.C.. Athens loses its democratic government. The Plague of Athens was a devastating epidemic which hit the city-state of Athens in ancient Greece during the second year of the Peloponnesian War (430 B.C.), when an Athenian victory still seemed within reach. The epidemic broke out in the overcrowded city. The sight of the burning funeral fires of Athens caused the Spartan army to withdraw for fear of the disease. It killed many of Athens's infantry, some expert naval men and their leader Pericles, who died during one of the secondary outbreaks in 429 B.C.. Some people believe that the plague was a critical factor in the loss of the war for Athens.