Athens had one of the strongest navies in the world, and combined with its allies it had overwhelming numbers compared to the Peloponnesians. It also had extreme political power, and yet the Spartan-led Peloponnesians still took them on in war. What would lead a coalition of small military city-states into taking on a much larger force? The Peloponnesian war was a brutal, long war that involved as much political controversy as it did military. But if some battles were won by the defeated, or some of the Athenian leaders had not died during the plague, there could have been an alternate outcome to one of the most confusing wars in ancient history.

The main cause of the war was Sparta's and its allies' fear of Athens' growing political power. According to the historian Thucydides, the war began "April 4, 431 B.C., the Thebans try to surprise Athenian ally Platea...