it was the Spartans with freedom of movement on land, who rampaged in the farms & fields and humiliated the Athenians behind walls to the point of creating Athenian political unrest. Then came to Athens a black swan: that loss of traditional grain supply had caused new sources to be ginned up, which came seaborne, and brought plague, which killed a third of Athens & assured Spartan victory –which it nailed down by finally mounting a naval challenge, at much lower cost by that time due to the degraded power of the Athenian navy. Athens, much richer, bigger, more respected, had Democracy, which under war pressure began to factionalize and remove from Athens the decisive power to use its greater assets. Sparta, smaller, poorer, feared, evil in the sense of its enslavement of a neighbor to provide food and labor, had a small council of leaders who made decisions quickly and had no need of worrying about public opinion.