Athenian Imperialism and her Changing Relations with Allies

The Peloponnesian War pitted the Athenians against the Spartans. The Peloponnesians’ were an alliance of city-states controlled by Sparta. These two powerful city-states became locked in a struggle for dominance of the eastern Mediterranean area. The roots of the conflict and in particular this expedition is highly complex. As Thucydides says in his history of the war, the underlying cause was Spartan fear of Athens' expansive power. But, the triggering event was Athens' aggressive behavior towards Corinth, an ally of Sparta.

Athens and Sparta were both dominant powers in ancient Greece. However, a legendary rivalry existed between the two. When Athens ended its alliance with Corcyra in 433 B.C. and began to surround Potidaea, it threatened Corinth’s position. Sparta feared that Athens was becoming too powerful and tried to avert war. The Spartans believed that peace was possible if the Athenians would revoke measures against Sparta's ally, Megara. The Athenian leader, Pericles, refused to concur with this because Sparta and Athens had earlier agreed that conflicts would be solved by negotiation. If the Athenians would yield to Sparta's request, they would in fact be accepting Sparta’s orders. This was unacceptable, and as a result, war broke out. Athens and its Delian League were attacked by Sparta and its Peloponnesian League. Diodorus mentions that the Spartans did not just declare war, but sought additional support from Persia.

There was an increasing concern in the Peloponnesian League that Athens' rapid growth was an opportunistic exploitation of Athenian allies and a direct threat to the League. Well-founded or not, these fears came to a head in 432, when Spartan allies lobbied hard for the League to check Athenian growth by declaring war. At these debates, a Spartan ally from Corinth chastised the perceived aggressive expansion of Athens, stating "(Athenians) are by nature incapable of either living a quiet life themselves or of allowing anyone else to do so."

Explain the methods used by the Athenians to transform the Delian League into the Athenian Empire. (25 marks) There is certainty no evidence to suggest that the Athenians had any long-term plans, in the years 479-470 BC, to change the Delian League into an empire, although from the beginning the potential to develop into an imperial power were there. Because from the beginning, Athens had considerable power as she was the permanent hegemon.The most important aspects involving the transformation of League into empire was the changing relationships between Athens and her allies, Periclesʼ imperial policy, Athensʼ selfish self interest in gaining more power by using the Leagueʼs power and establishing laws onto her allies such as the Coinage

The exiting of Sparta from this alliance at the conclusion of the war gave way for Athens to rise as the power which controlled the alliance. This gave Athens control of much of the coast, and allowed them to control and build up great commercial power. This would lead to the creation of the Athenian Empire. Athens would hold power until war breaks out between them and Sparta. Athens would eventually fall to Sparta with the defeat of her navy at

The Greeks closest to the Persian Empire after the war created the Delian League to protect them from the Persians. The Greeks chose the Athenians to lead them. The Spartans were originally asked to lead them, but the kind was very arrogant, so they retracted their offer. The Spartans then created the Peloponnesian League because they didn’t think the Athenians should lead the Delian League because they were getting too much credit for defeating the Persians in the war. The two leagues didn’t get along at all. This rivalry eventually turned into the Peloponnesian War. This war went on for about 30 years. After the war, the government changed in Athens.

The Peloponnesian War was an ancient Greek war fought by the Athenians against the Spartans. The Peloponnesians’ city-states under control of the Spartans. These two great city-states found themselves in a controversy over who should be in control over the Eastern Mediterranean. As Thucydides a Greek historian and general wrote in his history of the war, “In my view the real reason, true but unacknowledged, which forced the war was the growth of Athenian power, Spartan fear of it” (Tucker). But, ultimate trigger of the war was when Athens’ acted aggressively towards Corinth, who is an ally of the Spartans.

Athens and Sparta started off as allies standing side by side when they took on the Greco-Persian Wars lasting between 499 B.C. and 449 B.C.. They remained superior among the city-states for over a half

Argos received an excuse from the Delphic oracle to keep it from battle (Hdt. VII.148-152), and Messene was “so corrupted that [it] even tried to prevent Sparta’s attempts to come to Greece’s aid” (Plato, 692d). Other city-states avoided participation in the wars as well. The oracle also excused Crete from fighting (Hdt. VII.169), and the tyrant Gelon of Syracuse refused to let his state help Greece’s cause (Brunt 158-162). If these poleis had chosen to fight, the Persians may have been intimidated by the large Greek forces and avoided war. The Greeks instead presented an image of a nation torn by cowardice, thereby making the Persians more confident in attacking Greece. This lack of unity among the city-states created some

While the war may have been over, relations between Athens and Sparta continued to go sour. Athens continued to grow in power, and was beginning to pose a threat to Sparta and the Peloponnesian League. A series of conflicts occurred during the “Thirty Year’s Peace” that pushed Sparta and Athens to war again. For example, Athens intervened in a dispute between a colony and a city-state during the Corinth-Corcyra War. Corcyra (the city-state) was backed by Athens, while Epidamnos (the colony) was backed by Corinth. This persisted for a few years until the Corinthians abandoned their campaign, but this would not be the last time that Athens would clash with Corinth. Not long after, a Corinthian colony called Potidaea revolted from its

The Traditional Period of Greece, 500 - 338 BCE, cleared a path to a wide range of changes in Athenian history. The Athenian government transformed from an oppression to a vote based system, and after the Persian war in 499 BCE, Athens' begun to turned into a military superpower, also. Because of Themistocles supporting to construct a more grounded naval force, their military influence developed, making Athens' economy rise turning into the wealthiest city-states. The Peloponnesian War drew out the significance of lawmakers and pioneers, since now the administration is controlled by the general population. This war brought two of the most noticeable and powerful people to lead Athens through the war and molded Athens' future. The two pioneers are cousins, Pericles and Alcibiades. They have various similitudes, similar to their genealogy and instruction, while additionally using their interesting identities in their authority abilities.

The Delian League was an establishment formed in 478 BC. A large number of Greek cities formed an alliance under this league and together aimed to provide a strong defence against Persia, under the

The Peloponnesian War was the turning point in Athenian hegemony in Ancient Greece. It was fought in 431 B.C. between the Delian League, led by Athens, and the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. According to Thucydides, Athens’ imposing hegemonic status and its overwhelming quest for more power made the Peloponnesian War and Athens’s eventual fall from power inevitable. Despite the Athenians having a far more superior navy and being considerably wealthier, they were defeated and made subjects of Sparta. In this paper, I will discuss Thucydides’ and Socrates’ reasons for why

Military objectives were also unclear. Thucydides’ testimony recognizes the intention of helping to Sicilians cities Egesta and Leontinini and seeking the opportunity to obey Syracuse.

Very few civilizations have had as profound an influence on the world as those of ancient Greece. The Greeks laid the foundations for fields varying from philosophy to political theory to war tactics. However, this influence was not just due to their intelligence or success, but their widespread presence in the Mediterranean. Greek culture was spread throughout their known world in two distinct manners, the foundation of apoikia in the Archaic Age (8th century to 500 B.C. ) and imperialists by poleis, primarily Athens of the Classical Age (490 - 323 B.C ). Though the culture of a mother city (mētropolis) may have spread through two very different manners of “colonization.” The word is not used in the literal sense, but rather hereafter used to mean “spreading of culture”, as the former can hardly be described using the contemporary definition of colonization and the latter was through Athenian empire-building. These developments had a significant impact on ancient Greece and our modern perception thereof. Like most of the ancient world, we can best analyze these methods of colonialism through extant artifacts. I will analyze an inscription of the foundation oath of Cyrene, which recounts the decision and manner in which the island of Thera sent its citizens to the form a new polis, and the fragments of the Lapis Primus, a marble monolith that documented tributes to Athens when the city was at the peak of its imperial age, evidencing the magnitude of their power and influence in the Greek region.