Hi, I'm Tristan Hughes, and if you would like the ancient ad-free, get early access and bonus episodes, sign up to History Hit.

With a History Hit subscription, you can also watch hundreds of hours of original documentaries, including my recent documentary all about Petra and the Nabatans, and enjoy a new release every week.

Sign up now by visiting historyhit.com slash subscribe. 404 BC. Panic sweeps through Athens. After decades of dominance, total defeat is nearing for

this city and its people. Their navy has been destroyed, their food supply cut off, and now,

on the horizon, an armada of enemy ships can be seen.

The Spartans are coming.

It's The Ancients on History Hit. I'm Tristan Hughes, your host. And today we're telling the story

of the fall of Athens. At the end of the 5th century BC, Athens was the loser of a major

decades-long war known as the Peloponnesian War. It's been termed something of an ancient

Greek World War, Athens v. Sparta, plus their many allies, and the various theaters of combat

that stretched from Sicily to the Black Sea.

Ultimately, it was Sparta who emerged the victor, thanks largely to help from the looming

superpower of the time, the Persian Empire.

And Athens was lose its empire and its dominant position in the Greek world.

It is a huge event that completely reshaped

the ancient Greek world, featuring larger-than-life generals on both the Spartan and the Athenian side,

figures like Lysander and Alcibiades. To talk through Athens' downfall and the many

twists and turns in this story,

I was delighted to interview my old professor, Alistair Blanchard,

from the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia.

Now, in the past, Alistair and I have covered topics ranging from Heracles to Achilles,

to the plague of Athens, and homosexuality in ancient Greece.

...