The first was with the Persians in 490 and 480, and the second with the Spartans, the Athenians’ rivals for domination of the Greek world, during the long Peloponnesian War of 431–404. The best witness to the earlier period is the dramatist Aeschylus, who fought the Persians himself and wrote the earliest surviving play, his Persians of 472, to celebrate the Greek victory. He died in the 450s, at the zenith of Athenian power, when the core political institutions of the democracy (the Assembly, Council, and law courts) were brought to full development.
