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Ancient Greece in 431 BC was not a nation. It was a large collection of rival city-states located on the Greek mainland, on the west coast of Asia Minor, and on the many islands of the Aegean Sea. Most of the city-states had become allied with one or the other of the leading military powers, Athens and Sparta. Athens was a great naval power, while Sparta relied mainly on its army for superiority. In 431 BC these …

…the Athenian ships were lost, and several thousand Athenians and their allies were slain. Peace was signed in the spring of 404. Sparta won the war and imposed humiliating terms on Athens. The city walls were to be torn down; the fortifications of its port, the Piraeus, were to be destroyed; and all but 12 warships were to be surrendered. Athens was henceforth to be a Spartan ally and to follow the same foreign policy. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography**