Peloponnesian War Essay

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.

According to Thucydides, the period from the revolt of Thasos to the ostracism of Cimon (465-461BC) was the time when the main friction between Sparta and Athens occurred and eventually led to their war.

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.

The battle between Sparta's well-built army and Athens's exemplary navy was like a battle between a bear and a shark. If the bear goes into the water, the shark wins. However, if the shark enters land, the bear will kill it. The Athenian general and military genius Pericles knew this. Therefore, he devised a strategy that was based on the strength of his navy and the Spartan inability to battle him on sea; he devised a strategy of attrition where they would sit at home, and outlast the enemy (Kagan 52). In his mind, if Athens disregarded the Spartan land attacks, and instead survived off sea trade from their allies, the enemy would be unable to cause much damage. He wanted to drain them out psychologically, to get them to surrender from attacking the Athenian Empire (Kagan 52). One of the most important steps in doing this was to connect Athens to its navy city and their port. They did this by building walls that connected them, later known as the Long Walls (Kagan 9). Back then, walls were almost impregnable to attacks, and were one of the best defenses in the ancient world. Therefore, the addition of the Long Walls made both Athens and the port extremely hard to crack; they were ready for any Spartan land attack that would come their way. When the war finally started and the Spartans did come, they found that their attacks were not going to work. Their strategy of totally crushing the Athenian Empire and fighting a battle of annihilation was countered by the

The Peloponnesian War between the city-states of Athens and Sparta (and their respective allies) lasted from 431-404 BC. Conflicts between the two cites dated back further, however, with

Athens and Sparta were the main rival poleis in Ancient Greece around 4th century BC. Besides the fact that they were both called polis, the two cities had very little in common. Athens controlled the whole Attic region and could

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

The Peloponnesian War began in 431 BC between the Spartans and Athenians. The war was instigated by how Athens was gaining power, wealth, and prestige. The surrounding polishes became hostile and malicious towards Athens, Sparta included. Instead of pursuing an end to the hostility and conflict through diplomatic means, the leaders of Athens and Sparta both were for the beginning of a war. Each polis believed they had the upper hand and superior strategy and military. In time, war was declared between the two polises. The

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.

existing wars between each other” (Hdt. VII.145.1) in order to fight against Persia. However, only one Peloponnesian state (Sparta) offered help throughout the wars.

Once Sparta created his own rival league, the Peloponnesian League, feelings of jealousy accumulated towards the people of Athens and those feelings increased with competitive notions for power. Then when Athens attacked an ally of Sparta’s Peloponnesian League, Sparta decided

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

Athens and Sparta had now been at war for a while, and after a recent Sparta victory, Sparta decided to move some troops. Now, Sparta was in danger because of an important war generals death, and Sparta had been severely hurt by this. When he died Athens took many prisoners, and Sparta wanted them back, o they offered a treaty. Since Athens used to be in such a bad spot and was now winning, they were less motivated for peace, as they were winning. Athens had a multitude of Spartan prisoners, and their land had not been touched by Sparta for 3 years. They eventually reached out

The conditions that allowed the Peloponnesian War to occur were highly variable and overall unlikely to have come together as they did. On a purely tactile standpoint, the leaders of Corinth would not have offered to go to war with Athens if their ally, Sparta, had not been prepared to fight with them. Similarly, Athens would not have expended any resources into fighting the small, unimposing territory unless they knew that they were staking their military acclaim against Sparta. It was partially a matter of pride on both sides, each of which wanted to show that they were better equipped to wage

Angered, Corinth summoned allies to Sparta and outright “accused Athens of breach of the treaty and aggression on the rights of Peloponnese.” (1.67) Now both Athens and Corinth held hostility, Thucydides summarizing that “the complaint of Corinth was that her colony of Potidaea, and Corinthian and Peloponnesian citizens within it, were being besieged; that of Athens against the Peloponnesians that they had incited a town of hers, a member of her alliance and a contributor to her revenue, to revolt, and had come and were openly fighting against her on the side of the Potidaeans.” (1.66) This event did indeed escalate the movement towards war and I do believe it was a catalyst in further hostile actions. However, I believe this was fallout triggered by events of the first grievance, which was caused by the the ‘real’ long term reason of inevitable conflict between Athens and