Now we come to the decline of the free Greeks. Through the hubris of a few men their great governments shall clash and fracture against one another until they lie broken and wounded, but stubbornly refusing to let go of their fierce independent ideals. Such policies as they choose shall cause a shift in power wherein new states come to the fore in Greek politics and a tribe of horse-loving barbarians will come to believe themselves capable of doing what the might of Persia failed to enact.
After the destruction of Xerxes’ armies, Athens and Sparta are now arch rivals once again. The Delian League has made Athens rich beyond its dreams and enabled many building projects and civil benefits – it is a golden age. Sparta, on the other hands, has lost many Spartiates, and thanks to an earthquake that has devastated her infrastructure, the helots have risen up in revolt. In desperation one of the Spartan kings sends word to his friend, Cimon, in Athens, who quickly mobilizes a personal force to march to the aid of Sparta. But the garousia will non of it, and Cimon is turned back in disgrace. In a fit of “rage” the Athenians ostracize Cimon and declare war on Sparta to right this debacle, but in reality they wish to force the hand of Sparta’s allies and neighbors, thus reinforcing their League. In all truth, Sparta can do little to oppose Athens, but watches in frustration as her rival gobbles up the other Greek states and signs a peace treaty with Persia, securing the Ionic coastline.
The first Peloponnesian War has ended and the Spartans continue to rebuild whilst the Athenians triumph in all that they do. Trouble begins again when Athens takes action to secure the allegiance of Sparta’s long-time allies, Corinth and Magara. Sparta declares war as a result and Pericles, the ruling strategos of Athens, has the advantage: all he must do is pick at the Spartans, then slink behind his Long Walls, which the Spartans cannot take. This strategy works brilliantly until a plague breaks out in Athens during one such siege, killing Pericles and the majority of the ruling classes. Stricken, the people want results, so soldiers are sent into the Peloponnese and to Syracuse. This latter attack in Sicily is the true deciding factor the war, as the destruction of the majority of Athens’ army and navy spells doom for their cause. What’s more, the sea-faring Syracusians have joined the war, countering the Athenian naval power. Before long, even the Spartans know how to sail on the Aegean, thanks to a deal that they cut with the Persians, and the Athenian fleet is destroyed outright by the Spartan general, Lysander.
The Spartans have won, but they have been severely weakened by the conflict. Thebes therefore steps up to try her hand at exercising power, as does Corinth and the Greek island. After all the trouble taken since their first bid for freedom so many years ago, the Ionians are once again under Persian control. Ironically, since Athens has begun asserting her power again, many tired Greeks defect to the Ionians, seeking a better life in the lands that they sought to take from their enemies. Meanwhile, a Theban general, Epaminondas, drives all the way into the Peloponnese, freeing the helots in all the west, though Sparta itself still stands.
Throughout all this drama, Macedonia has gone unnoticed. The kingdom is a backwater as far as the Greeks are concerned, but she has grown rich off of the continual warfare to the south. They fight much like the Greeks do, with a double row of heavy infantry, but their new king, Phillip II, wishes to expand his power, and for that he needs men. Considering his options, the clever king reorganizes his army, arming peasant soldiers with smaller shields and longer spears, grouping them together into phalanxes of such impenetrable strength that no hoplite could hope to come to grips with them. Being a horse-loving people, Phillip takes those soldiers who feel short-changed by the sudden promotion of the lower classes and mounts them upon fine Macedonian steeds, reasserting their status while creating a cavalry that no Greek could ever expect. Now all Phillip needs is a perfect storm.
He gets his chance when the Thebans make an effort to take the Phocans, the people who’s polis, Delphi, hosts that famous shrine. Desperate Phocans have broken into the temple and raided its stores in an effort to use the riches to hire mercenaries and the priests have called a sort of proto-Crusade by all free Greeks. The Greeks are slow to respond – if they would have responded at all – but from the north comes the jingle of bridle bits and the ominous tramp tramp of numerous marching feet as the barbarous Macedonians answer the call.
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