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THE Golden Age, when Athens was so wonderful, lasted for only fifty years.
Why, do you suppose, did it stop at all?
It stopped chiefly because of a fight.
This time, however, the fight was not between Greece and someone outside,as in the Persian Wars. The fight was between two cities that had before this been more or less friendly—mostly less—between Sparta and Athens. It was a family quarrel between Greeks. The fight was all because one of these cities Sparta—was jealous of the other—Athens.
The Spartans, as you know, were fine soldiers. The Athenians were fine soldiers, too. But ever since Themistocles had beaten the Persians at Salamis with the ships he had built, Athens had had a fine fleet as well, and Sparta ha no fleet. Furthermore, Athens had become the most beautiful and most cultured city in the whole world.
Sparta did not care much about Athens's beautiful buildings and her education and culture and that sort of thing; that did not interest Sparta. What did make Sparta jealous was Athen's fleet. Sparta was inland, not on nor near the seashore as Athens was; so Sparta could not have a fleet at all. That city did not intend, however, to let Athens get ahead; therefore, on one excuse or another, Sparta with all of itsneighbors started a war against Athens with all of itsneighbors.
Sparta was in a part of Greece that was called by the hard name, the Peloponnesus. In those days, people did not think this a hard name, for they were as familiar with it as you are with such a name as Massachusetts, for instance, which would seem just as hard to a Greek as Peloponnesus does to you. This war between Athens and Sparta was, therefore, called the Peloponnesian War from the fact that it was not only Sparta but all of the Peloponnesus that fought against Athens.
We think a war lasts entirely too long if it lasts four or five years, but the Peloponnesian War lasted twenty-seven years! There is a saying, “When Greek meets Greek then comes a tug of war!” which means to say, “When two equal fighters such as Athens and Sparta, both Greek, meet each other in battle, who knows how it will end?”
I am not going to tell you about all the battles that took place during these twenty-seven years, but at the end of this long and bloody war, both cities were tired and worn out, and the glory of Athens was gone. Although Sparta was ahead, neither city ever amounted to much afterward. The Peloponnesian War ruined them both. That's the way war does!
All during the Peloponnesian War there was a man in Athens by the name of Socrates who, many think, was one of the wisest and best men who ever lived. He was called a philosopher and went about the city teaching the people what was right and what they ought to do. But instead of actually tellingthe people what he thought was right, he asked them questions which made them see what was right. In this way, chiefly by asking questions, he led people to find out for themselves what he wanted them to know. This kind of teaching, simply by asking questions, has ever since been called Socratic.
Socrates had a snub nose and was bald and quite ugly, and yet he was very popular with the Athenians, which may seem strange, for the Athenians loved beautiful faces and beautiful figures and beautiful things, and Socrates was anything but beautiful. It must have been the beauty of Socrates's character that made them forget his ugliness, as I know some boys and girls who think their teacher is perfectly beautiful and just because she is so good and kind they love her, although she is really not pretty at all.
Socrates had a wife named Xantippe. She had a bad temper and was the worst kind of a grouch. She thought Socrates was wasting his time, that he was a loafer, as he did no work that brought in any money. One day she scolded him so loudly that he left the house, whereupon she threw a bucket of water on him. Socrates, who never answered back, merely remarked to himself:
“After thunder, rain may be expected.”
Socrates didn't believe in all the Greek gods, Zeus, Aphrodite, and the rest, but he was careful not to say so himself, for the Greeks were very particular that no one should say or do anything against their gods. Phidias, you remember, was thrown into prison for merely putting his picture on the shield of the goddess Athena, and one would have been put to death for teaching young men not to believe in the gods.
At last, however, Socrates, as he had feared he would be, was charged with not believing in the Greek gods and with teaching others not to believe in them. For this he was condemned to death. He was ordered to drink a cup of hemlock, which was a deadly poison. Socrates's pupils, or disciples, as they were then called, tried to have him refuse to drink the cup, but he would not disobey the order; and so, when he was nearly seventy years old, with all his disciples around him, he drank the cup of hemlock and died.
Although Socrates lived many hundreds of years ago, he believed and taught some things that people today also believe.
One of these things he believed was that each of us has inside a conscience, which tells us what is right and what is wrong; we don't have to read from a book or be told by another what is right or what is wrong.
Another thing he taught was that there is a life after death and that when we die our souls live on.
No wonder he was not afraid himself to die!
雅典空前辉煌的黄金时代仅仅持续了五十年。
你猜它为什么会结束呢？
黄金时代之所以结束主要是因为一场战争。
不过，这场战争并不是希腊和其他国家（比如波斯）之间的战争。这场战争发生在两个城邦之间——斯巴达和雅典之间，它们以前的关系还算得上友好——但大多时间不太友好。这是希腊内部的纷争。之所以打起来完全是因为其中一个城邦——斯巴达——妒忌另一个城邦——雅典。
你知道的，斯巴达人是优秀的战士。雅典人也是杰出的战士。但是自从泰米斯托克利用自己创建的战船在萨拉米斯海湾击败了波斯人之后，雅典也有了一支优秀的舰队，而斯巴达却没有。不仅如此，雅典还成为了全世界最美丽、最文明的城市。
斯巴达并不在乎雅典美丽的建筑和它的教育、文化以及诸如此类的事情，这些都引不起它的兴趣。真正让斯巴达眼红的是雅典的舰队。斯巴达是内陆城市，不像雅典那样在海边或是靠近海岸，因此，斯巴达根本无法拥有一支舰队。但是，斯巴达却不想让雅典领先。因此，以这样那样的借口，斯巴达伙同它所有的邻邦发起了一场针对雅典和雅典所有邻邦的战争。
斯巴达位于希腊一个名字很复杂的地方，伯罗奔尼撒半岛。当时，人们并不觉得这是个很难叫的名字，因为他们对这个名字已经熟悉了，举个例子，就好像你熟悉美国的马萨诸塞州一样，并不觉得“马萨诸塞”拗口，但是这个名字对于希腊人大概就如同伯罗奔尼撒半岛对你而言一样，不那么顺口了。因此，雅典和斯巴达之间的这场战争就叫做“伯罗奔尼撒战争”，因为事实是不仅斯巴达而且整个伯罗奔尼撒半岛的城邦都和雅典作战。
我们觉得一场战争如果持续四五年，就是很长时间了，但是伯罗奔尼撒战争竟打了二十七年！俗话说：“当希腊人遇上希腊人，定有一场苦战。”意思就是说：“像雅典和斯巴达这两个同属于希腊的对手在战场上相见，双方旗鼓相当，谁能知道结果如何呢？”
我不打算向你讲述这二十七年里发生的所有的战争，但是这场旷日持久、血流成河的战争到了最后，两个城邦都疲惫不堪、元气耗尽，雅典的辉煌也消失殆尽了。尽管斯巴达占了上风，但是两个城邦此后再也成不了气候。伯罗奔尼撒战争把双方都拖垮了。那就是战争的结果！
在伯罗奔尼撒战争期间，雅典有个名叫苏格拉底的人，很多人认为他是古往今来最聪慧、最高尚的人之一。他被称为哲学家。他在雅典城里到处给人讲什么是正确的，什么是应该做的。但是他并没有向人们直接“说出”什么是他认为正确的，而是向他们提出问题让他们自己悟出什么是正确的。用这种以提问为主的方式，他引导人们自己发现他希望他们明白的道理。这种仅仅通过提问来进行教学的方法，从此就被称为“苏格拉底问答法”。
苏格拉底长着个狮子鼻，头又秃顶，相貌很丑，但是他很受雅典人的欢迎，这似乎有点奇怪，因为雅典人喜爱姣美的容貌、窈窕的身材和一切美好的事物，而苏格拉底的外表与美一点也不沾边。一定是苏格拉底高尚的品德让他们忽略了他丑陋的相貌。就像我知道，有些男孩、女孩认为他们的老师美得无可挑剔，仅仅是因为她非常亲切和蔼，他们真心喜爱她而已，而实际上她一点都不漂亮。
苏格拉底有个妻子名叫赞蒂佩。她脾气很暴躁，是个爱发牢骚的泼妇。她觉得苏格拉底在浪费时间，整天游手好闲，因为他什么挣钱的工作也不干。一天，她又大骂苏格拉底，声音很大，他只好无奈地离开家，于是，她把一桶水泼到他身上。对吵架从不回嘴的苏格拉底只对自己说了句：
“雷声之后，想必有雨。”
苏格拉底不信仰希腊诸神，如宙斯、阿佛洛狄特和其他的那些神，但是他很谨慎，不把自己的想法说出来，因为希腊人在这方面很较真，不让任何人说什么或做什么来反对他们的神灵。菲迪亚斯，你还记得吧？就是因为在雅典娜女神雕像的盾牌上刻了自己的头像就被投入了监狱，而如果有人教年轻人不信仰他们的神，就会被处死。
然而，正如苏格拉底所担心的那样，他最终还是被指控不信仰希腊众神，并且还教唆他人不信仰众神。他因此而被判处死刑。他被责令喝下一杯毒芹汁，这是一种致命的毒药。苏格拉底的学生，或按当时的称呼，他的门徒，劝说他拒绝那杯毒药，但是他不愿抗命；于是，在他将近七十岁的时候，他所有的门徒都围绕在他的身旁，他喝下了那杯毒芹汁，死去了。
尽管苏格拉底生活在几千年前，但是他所坚信和传授的哲理至今为人所信服。
他的信念之一是：我们每个人的内心都有“良知”，它让我们知道什么是对，什么是错；我们不必从书本里或由他人指点才能明辨是非。
他宣扬的另一个观念就是人死后还有另外一种生活，我们身体死了，灵魂还活着。
难怪他不怕死！