Plague of Athens

[Paralus]

Yet I think this situation was illusionary,at least in the end of the Archidamian War. By the time Sparta took the men from Sphacteria back,and even when most of the Athenian castles inside Peloponnessos(like Pylos) had not been given back as the Peace of Nikias said,they seemed not much loyal to the peace. ...

Sparta reneged on the peace almost from day one. I think it way too simple to put this down to a new batch of ephors. Sparta – likely through jealousy and fear of personal prestige – had not fully supported Brasidas in Thrace. To give back Amphipolis (and others) would go against everything it had started the war for. The Athenians were well within their rights to refuse to hand back Pylos et al given Spartan intransigence in meeting the peace terms

...At the same time,Sparta had lost almost nothing in the end of the Archidamian war. Not many men,not much money while Athens had lost extraordinary amounds of money and extraordinary numbers of men. Sparta was much less weakened at the end of the war than Athens,compared to the state in 430 bc. Athens had not won the war.

Which altered Athens’ prosecution of the war not one whit. It still had – as you correctly point out – an empire from which to draw funds to pay for its fleets and it did so.You had argued at the beginning that the plague had reduced Athens to a state where it was in some desperate need to seek peace due to the fact that it had lost too many men; that Athens “didn;t have men to equip their fleet,plus they feared too much if they lost even moreâ€