It's no surprise that some of the most interesting history surrounding Athens involves warfare. And the wars the ancient Athenians entangled themselves in were, in retrospect, some of the most important conflicts in the story of civilization itself.
If certain battles went a different way, if a hoplite sneezed at the wrong moment, or a butterfly distracted an oarsman at an inopportune time, the Western world as we know it probably would not exist.
The three major wars are detailed here, along with descriptions of military technology used during the era.