For 20 years, Athens and Sparta fought, each unable to land a killing blow. But as the democratically elected Athenian leaders focused on the Spartans outside their walls, they lost track of the enemies within their own city. Treason brewed as oligarchs dreamed of murder.

Sources:

• The Peloponnesian War, by Donald Kagan
• Lords of the Sea, by John R. Hale

After defeating the Persian empire, Athens and its democratic system were on top of the world. But prize fighters always attract challengers. And just down the road from Athens, another Greek city state thought it should be calling the shots. Envy turned to jealousy. And jealousy turned to murder.

Sources:

• The Peloponnesian War, by Donald Kagan
• Lords of the Sea, by John R. Hale

Athenian Democracy was established, but who cared? Compared to the mighty Persian empire, the Greek city states were a bunch of backwaters. And that's how history may have remembered them, if not for one suicidally ambitious Greek, and one desperately crafty athenian who saved his city from destruction.

Sources:

• The Peloponnesian War, by Donald Kagan
• Lords of the Sea, by John R. Hale

Athens wasn't always a democracy, but when a tyrant overplayed his hand and a revolutionary proposed something better to the masses, it launched a new form of government that changed the Greek world.

Sources:

• The Peloponnesian War, by Donald Kagan
• Lords of the Sea, by John R. Hale