The supremacy over the other states of Greece which Athens attained
after the Persian War, and maintained during the Age of Pericles, with
her constant prosperity and unparalleled growth, raised up jealousy and
hatred against her, and during that brilliant period were sown the seeds
of a civil warfare which was destined to destroy the power and splendor
of Greece. After the death of Pericles, Athens had trusted to unworthy
demagogues, of whom the most notorious was Cleon.
The other leading state of Greece was Sparta, and there was a general
gravitation in the different cities to these two centers of Grecian
life, those in which democratic sentiments prevailed looking to Athens
for leadership, the rest (those in which the aristocratic or
oligarchical element prevailed) regarding themselves as the natural
allies of Sparta. The conflict between these two opposing principles,
democracy and oligarchy, broke out in 431 B. C., and is known as the
Peloponnesian War. Athens was the stronger by sea, Sparta by land.
[Illustration: Pinakotheka, or Museum of Pictures.
Propylæa, or Porch.
Nike Apteros.
Parthenon, or Temple of Athena Parthenos.
=THE ACROPOLIS OF ATHENS AS IT APPEARED DURING THE AGE OF PERICLES=
Pericles, with the sculptor Phidias, covered the Acropolis with a mass
of beautiful buildings, making it the glory of Athens, if not of the
whole ancient world. No finer structure has ever been known than the
Parthenon. It is to be seen on the highest point of the Acropolis, on
the right hand of the picture.]