Civilization #8: Rat Utopia and the Peloponnesian War

Greek city-states (poleis) around 500 BC, particularly Sparta and Athens, developed dramatically different political systems based on their geographic locations and natural resources.

Spartan citizens (Spartiates) represented a small warrior elite ruling over helots (enslaved Greeks), with a ratio of roughly 1 Spartan to 10 helots. Young Spartan boys entered military boarding schools at age 7, supervised by older teenagers who instilled emotional discipline through brutal treatment.

Athenian citizens developed the world’s first democracy, where even poor citizens could participate in government. Naval crews drawn from lower classes gained political power through their military service, while wealthy citizens competed for prestige through public works and cultural patronage.

Athens led the Delian League (naval empire) against Sparta and the Peloponnesian League (land-based alliance) in a 27-year conflict (431-404 BC). Thucydides, an Athenian general and historian, documented this war as a fundamental clash between democratic and oligarchic political systems.

Pericles, Athens’ greatest democratic leader, delivered this speech honoring fallen soldiers in the first year of the Peloponnesian War. As recorded by Thucydides, the oration became democracy’s foundational text.

The plague struck Athens in 430 BC, killing roughly one-third of the population including Pericles, Athens’ greatest democratic leader and military strategist. His death left no obvious successor of comparable wisdom and authority.

After Pericles’ death, ambitious Athenian politicians like Cleon and Alcibiades competed for popular support, each proposing contradictory strategies to distinguish themselves and gain power rather than win the war.