Athens and Sparta have had a very strained relationship between each other. In 500 BC Athens and Sparta were fighting besides each other against the Persians in the Persian War. At the end of the Persian War in the war was victoriously won by Greece and Athens would grow very powerful. Tensions would rise between Athens and Sparta and would lead into decades of a huge rivalry. Thucydides ,an Athenian Historian, believed the rivalry was because Sparta would be scared of the growing power of Athens. The rivalry would last for almost 50 years but war would come. Athens was disrupting the Alliance for the Peloponnesian league …show more content…
Athens would lose half of their male population due to fighting, the plague and the famine. Sparta would also lose many people. At the end of the war there was few more thousand male soldiers. Another casualties both Athens and Sparta had were the loss of farms. Due to Greece’s mountainous structure farming was not one of Athens or Sparta strength. The loss of farms would be critical since one of Athens and Sparta strength were trading they would have very little to trade. The Peloponnesian war would weaken Athens and Spartas