Ancient Greeks: Crucible of Civilization video

The Spartans were invading Athenian territory so Athens needed a plan. They were burning all the farmland around the city and all the people could do was watch from inside the city walls. The Athenians were anxious but Pericles got them to stick with his plan. He knew they could rely on their fleet and shipments from overseas. Pericles didn't know at the time that this fleet carried another threat. After a year of war shipments of grain were brought in and so was the plague. Pericles could have never predicted this and it would destroy Athens. With everyone behind city walls, the disease spread very fast. The city was filled with a terrible smell, dead bodies everywhere, and terror. People realized that no matter if you were good or bad you could die, so what's the point in being good. Plagued killed 1/3 of the population of Athens. Then Pericles caught the plagued and battled it for 6 months before finally dying. Then everyone did whatever it took to gain power. Athenian democracy could end up turning into mob rule. It would now be very hard to fight in a war.