Classical Greece after the Peloponnesian War, 400–350 B.C.E.

The Greek city-states regained their economic and political stability after the Peloponnesian War (431–404 B.C.E.), but daily life remained hard for many. The war’s aftermath dramatically affected Greek philosophy. At Athens, citizens who blamed Socrates for inspiring the Thirty Tyrants’ crimes prosecuted him in court; the jury condemned him to death. His execution helped persuade the philosophers Plato and Aristotle to detest democracy and develop new ways of thinking about right and wrong and how human beings should live.

The Greek city-states’ continuing competition for power in the fourth century B.C.E. drained their resources. Sparta’s attempt to dominate central Greece and western Anatolia by collaborating with the Persians provoked violent resistance from Thebes and Athens. By the 350s B.C.E., the Greek city-states had so weakened themselves that they were unable to prevent the Macedonian kingdom from taking control of Greece.