Hi, thanks for tuning in to ancient Greece declassified.

Episode 60.

The Rise of Athens.

You know what's even harder than winning in war?

Making good use of a victory.

This might sound crazy, but history is filled with cases where a military victory actually

ruined the victors.

For example, when Sparta finally defeated Athens in the Peloponnesian War and emerged as the

undisputed leader of Greece, that effectively marked the end of Sparta as a major player in history.

Because they didn't know what to do with their victory. They kind of just coasted along and

drawing their top dog status for a few

decades and then gradually faded into oblivion, never to play a significant role in history ever again.

The philosopher Aristotle witnessed this decline and summed it up by saying, quote,

when fighting, the Spartans prevailed,

but when ruling, they perished.

Mic drop.

Writing 200 years later,

the historian Polybius concluded that in the annals of history,

quote, those who have gained victories

are much more numerous than those who have made good use of them,

end quote.

His most striking example, Hannibal, the great Carthaginian general who defeated Rome not

...