Why Did Athens Lose The Peloponnesian War?

About two- thousand, five hundred years ago, in Athens, Greece, children danced, played and helped around the house. One of these children was named Myrtis. Myrtis was a young girl that lived around 430 B.C.E.. When she was about 11 years old, she caught an illness that cut her life short. Her remains were found “In 1994–95 in a mass grave during work to build the metro station at Kerameikos, Greece...The analysis showed that Myrtis and two other bodies in the mass grave had died of typhoid fever during the Plague of Athens in 430 BCE.” (Myrtis). Stories like Myrtis’ are very common. Not only did the Plague kill many citizens, but it altered society then and now, causing Athens to lose the Peloponnesian War. The Plague of Athens contributed

430 B.C.E. “was particularly free from all other kinds of illness…” , but little did citizens know that “In the next 3 years, most of the population was infected, and perhaps as many as 75,000 to 100,000 people, 25% of the population, died.” During this time period, people were already being removed from the countryside and put in the city. The sickness made it particularly hard for the immigrants. There were no living quarters for the newcomers and they were forced to live in temporary homes that exposed them to sickness that caused them to die quickly. Soon,“It was 430 BCE and the Athenians were holed up behind Athens’ city walls.”. Athenian government walled the city in hopes to protect citizens from the war. This is part of the reason why immigrants were being forced to move. As soon as the plague stuck, people couldn’t leave due to walls, and the sickness spread like wild-fire. The fires from the burning of the dead kept enemies away from the city, but it didn’t stop Athens from being defeated outside of the walls. Since trade was soon stopped, it became hard for troops to communicate. Many important generals and leaders died during this period. According to the general Thucydides, “Athens owed the plague the beginnings of a state of unprecedented lawlessness.” People committed crimes with the thought that they would not live long enough to receive punishment. The anarchy and rebellion that the

Before the epidemic struck, the late ruler Pericles, who was killed by the plague, described Athens as “the school of Hellas, and that the individual Athenian in his own person seems to have the power of adapting himself in the most varied forms of action with the utmost versatility and grace…”. Pericles, who did not survive long enough to observe Athens at its fall, died with the memory of a thriving, strong, and free place. Unfortunately other sources claim that about a year later, life had taken an unexpected turn. Pericles preached that there was “It is true that we are called a democracy… again, our military training is in many respects superior to that of our adversaries.”. The ruler died with the idea that his empire had a strong government that thrived and was growing at a fast pace. Little did he know, that in the next year, his great accomplishments would