The Athens Sophocles knew was a small place—a polis, one of the self-governing city-states on the Greek peninsula—but it held within it the emerging life of democracy, philosophy, and theater. Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle wrote and taught in Athens, and their ideas gave birth to Western philosophy. Here, too, democracy took root and flourished, with a government ruled entirely by and for its citizens.
During the fifth century B.C., Athens presided as the richest and most advanced of all the city-states. Its army and navy dominated the Aegean after the defeat of the Persians, and the tribute money offered to the conquering Athenians built the Acropolis, site of the Parthenon, as well as the public buildings that housed and glorified Athenian democracy. The wealth of Athens also assured regular public art and entertainment, most notably the Festival of Dionysus, where Sophocles produced his tragedies.
In the fifth century, Athens had reached the height of its development, but Athenians were vulnerable, too. Their land, like most of Greece, was rocky and dry, yielding little food. Athenians often fought neighboring city-states for farmland or cattle. They sought to solve their agricultural problems by reaching outward to more fertile lands through their conquering army and navy forces. Military skill and luck kept Athens wealthy for a time, but the rival city-state Sparta pressed for dominance during the long Peloponnesian War (431– 404 B.C.). By the end of the fifth century, Sparta had starved Athens into submission, and the power of the great city-state ended.
