Thomas R. Martin, An Overview of Classical Greek History from Mycenae to Alexander

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Crowding in the city of Athens

Perhaps the most ruinous personal losses and disruptions caused by wartime conditions at Athens were imposed on the the many people who usually lived in the countryside outside the walls of the urban center. These country dwellers periodically had to take refuge inside the city walls¹ while the Spartan invaders wrecked their homes and damaged their fields. If they did not also own a house in the city or have friends who could take them in, people whose normal residences were outside the walls of Athens simply had to camp in public areas in the city in uncomfortable and unsanitary conditions. The crowded conditions in the city created by the influx of uhnappy and anxious country dwellers led to friction between city dwellers and the refugees from the rural areas.