Athens led the Delian League. They taxed the members of the league in exchange for protection from the powerful navy of Athens. However, Athens was gaining power, and under ruler Pericles, they used the money given to them by those who they protected and taxed to create the Golden Age of Athens. At that time, Athens was at the height of its power, and they had many beautiful marble temples, statues, and walls in their city. Eventually, the members of the Leauge figured out and began to resent Athens, Sparta created their own league, and the Peloponnesian War began.
During this war, Sparta ended up victorious over Athens, but afterward, the entirety of Greece was weak. Philip II of Macedonia, the father of the later conqueror of Greece, Alexander the Great, came in with his army and took Greece over.
