Greeks Fighting Greeks

Photo courtesy and ©1996 The Ancient Greek World

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Athens vs. Sparta

The sea was overrun with pirates. Since the Athenians had the best navy in Greece, they said they would get rid of the pirates. This was fine until all the pirates were gone. At this time the Athenians kept on stopping ships and collecting money. Perciles used the money to rebuild the Athenian acropolis that had been burned by the Persians.

The people of Sparta became angry over this. They decided to fight the Athenians. One big problem occurred. The two armies had trouble finding a place to fight. The Spartans were great on land. The Athenians were a great sea power.

Greek Vessel

Image Courtesy of Classroom Clipart©

The Spartans decided to remedy this problem by burning the crops and cutting down the olive trees in Athens. A plague broke out in Athens. The plague killed one-forth of the people including the king Pericles. The war dragged on until the food that was shipped to Athen from the Black Sea was cut off by the Spartans. Finally in 404 BC the Athenians surrendered.  

Greek Soldier

Image Courtesy of Classroom Clipart©

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Macedon and Philip II

Macadon was the largest city-state in Greece. Philip II became its king. Some historians believe Philip II was the smartest leader in all of history. He built up trade, built roads, helped the farmers and did a number of things to help the city-state run smoothly. As a leader he built a large army. He came up with better ways of fighting. One of these was rams for knocking down walls. He built towers for archers to shoot into the city. He also invented the catapult. Philip II and his army conquered a lot of land. He eventually conquered all of Greece. Philip II decided to fight Persia. Before Philip could carry out his plan he was murdered.   

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Flow Chart of Greeks fighting Greeks

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