Download Peloponnesian War

History assignment.
Charbel Khoury
Ancient history
Account and assess how the Spartans and Athenians engage into war.
fter the Persian war was over, Athens was not happy with Persia still
operating in the Agean Sea. Athens had aimed to drive Persia from the
Agean Sea. Athens had a powerful navy and had formed a league in
477 BC with its allies. Sparta was not interested and did not join the league.
Athens allies contributed men, ships and money. The treasury was kept at the
island of Delos, this is why it was named the Delian league. The league was
successful and by 470 BC the southern parts of the Agean Sea was cleared.
Some of the members of the league began to consider work was complete
and no longer wanted to be in the league. Athens refused arguing that they
were benefiting from their presence in the league. A brief war ensued
between Athens and Naxos in regards to Naxos not wanting to be in the
league. Athens defeated the city and dismantled its walls. This proved to the
others in the league that it was not voluntary for them to be in the league.
Athens began to demand money payment rather than contributions in ships.
A
Athens began to expand within the Greek mainland. She did it mostly by
treaty, but was not afraid to use force when negotiations failed. In 457BC
Athens invaded and conquered Boeotia defeating the major city-state of
Thebes. Her expansion made an enemy of both Sparta and Corinth, both a
powerful combination.
In 454BC the Delian treasury was transferred to the temple of Athena, arguing
that it would be safer within the Acropolis.
The Persians had been driven from most of the Aegean Sea. Members of the
League could not withdraw and their "contributions" were mainly in cash. The
treasury itself was physically in Athens and the monies were being used for
non-League purposes including the beautification of the city. And now Athens
was annexing her neighbours within Greece itself.1 Now Sparta and Corinth
(and others) regarded Athens, rather than Persia, as the chief danger to
Greek liberty.
With all money in treasury and under the leadership of Pericles Athens was
now powerful, rich and the most beautiful city. Pericles was the force behind
the great buildings like the Acropolis and the Parthenon. He also managed to
arrange peace with Persia in 449BCE; this peace lasted for forty years.
Pericles used money from the league for the fortification of Piraeus making
this port of Athens vulnerable only by sea. He built walls which were seven
miles long that extended down to the sea where Athens great navy ruled.
1
history.boisestate.edu, History of W estern Civilization , history.boisestate.edu/westciv/peloponn/
Charbel Khoury
Athens' rise to brilliance was resented and mistrusted by other city-states, and
especially by Sparta and Corinth. The former feared that Athens would begin
expanded on land and threaten her system of alliances in the Peloponnesian
Peninsula, while Corinth feared Athens as an economic rival that had a strong
military behind it. Both cities had their network of colonies and allies who
shared their sentiments.2
In 440BC Athens did indeed begin to expand on land, which so alarmed
Sparta that a nasty war broke out. This ended with both sides exhausted and
produced a treaty that was supposed to assure peace between them for the
next 30 years. By the terms of the treaty, Athens gave up her entire land
empire, in return for which Sparta recognized Athenian supremacy at sea.
Sparta still feared Athens; however, as did Corinth, for Athenian sea power
was stronger than ever. Corinth was a distant and envious second. Corinth
took the lead in painting Athens as a threat to Greek liberty, a picture readily
believed in Sparta and elsewhere. For her part, Athens insisted that she was
the natural leader of the Greeks, her worthiness having been proved in both
war and peace.
Now all Pericles' careful work was to pay off. The people of Attica withdrew
from their farms and villages, and retired to the protection of the city walls.
The Spartan army invaded Attica, ravaged the countryside, but was quite
unable to lay effective siege to the city, for supplies flowed freely under the
protection of the Long Walls and the fleet. In turn, Athenian ships raided all
along the Peloponnesian coast.
The aristocrats of Athens didn't much like seeing their estates burn, but
everyone had to admit that Pericles' strategy looked to be effective. Crops
could be replanted and estates rebuilt; in the meantime, the city of Athens
stood firm, and the fleet was wreaking havoc on the supply lines for both
Corinth and Sparta.
There were flaws in Percles' plan, however. For one thing, his strategy
protected Athens well, but it proved less effective in attacking Sparta. The
fleet, after all, could not sail on land. More immediately, though, it soon
appeared that Pericles had not reckoned the effect of stuffing thousands more
people inside the city.
2
Ibid
Charbel Khoury
In 430BC Athens was stricken down by another enemy, Plague. The plague
struck Athens killing about 1/3 of her population. In 429BC the plague took the
life of Athens’s brilliant statesman, Pericles. With Pericles gone his
successors attempted to wage the war on land and sea. Three confrontations
followed.
The first in 425BC at Sphacteria at which Athens defeated Sparta.
The second in 424BC at Delian at which Athens was decisively beaten by the
Boeotians.
The third occurred at Amphipolis in 422BC during this engagement Cleon,
the Athenian leader, and Brasidas, a Spartan commander, were killed. A
temporary halt to the fighting was called soon afterwards in 421BC.
Pericles' reforms had created tensions between the oligarchs and the
common folk, but his long-running political success had kept tensions from
breaking out into open conflict. After his death, the split between the oligarchs
(who favored a settlement with Sparta) and the democrats (who favored allout war) became more pronounced.
The democrats soon gained the upper hand, led by Cleon. This man, a tanner
by trade, argued for an invasion of the Peloponnese and an assault on Sparta
itself. The Spartans, he said, would never dare attack Attica with an Athenian
army in their homeland, and an invasion would likely spur a revolt of the
helots.
So, Cleon got an army and he invaded the peninsula in 425 at Pylos. The
invasion nearly succeeded, but the invading force got bottled up on a
waterless island just off shore. After two years and a huge expenditure of
funds, the expedition failed utterly. Then, in 422, Cleon died in battle.
This whole period is called the Archidamian war, after one of the kings of
Sparta at the time. In general, despite the effort at Pylos and Sphacteria, the
first ten years of the war are marked by minor defeats and minor victories,
with neither side able to do the other serious harm. All the time, of course,
trade suffered and there were problems with allies (for a famous example,
read the Melian Dialog. And all the time, the oligarchs were urging peace.
It was not long before hostilities were renewed. In June 415BC, Athens sent a
force to Syracuse in Sicily. The goal was to interrupt the corn trade to the
Peloponnesus, which could severely weaken them economically. The
campaign was disastrous for Athens. By 413 Athens lost most of her army
and fleet, and Sparta was encouraged to resume the war.
Charbel Khoury
Despite the treaty, Corinth and Athens continued to fight indirectly, through
their colonies and allies, each unwilling to have their respective forces face
one another, for the Athenians feared Sparta on land every bit as much as the
Spartans feared Athens at sea. At Corcyra and Potidaea in 433, Corinthian
and Athenian ships fought one another, though only in the role of protectors of
their colonies. Nevertheless, these conflicts involved large expenditures of
money and resources, and each further cemented the enmity between the two
cities
In 432, land forces engaged over Megara, which is on the Isthmus of Corinth.
Then, in 431, Thebes attacked Plataea in an attempt to force that city to join
its own Boeotian League. Plataea, you should recall, was the one city to fight
alongside Athens at Marathon. The Athenians still offered special thanks to
the city every five years in remembrance. There was no way Athens would
tolerate Theban domination of Plataea. Athens declared war on Thebes,
Sparta sprang to the defense of its ally, Corinth rallied to Sparta, and
everyone chose up sides.
Sparta’s allies came to the Apella to complain about suffering caused from
Athenian aggression. Thucydides records the speeches made at this
gathering, in which the Corinthians denounced Athenian imperialism. The
Corinthians even threatened Sparta with “do not force the rest of us in despair
to join a different alliance”. The opinions in the Spartan government were
divided as according to Finley, none of these factors influenced Sparta. What
was important however was for Sparta to maintain her prestige and
dominance over the Peloponnesus. Thus, if Sparta was to lead the
Peloponnesian league, she could no longer remain neutral and would have to
make a choice. In the vote for war, the pro war vote won by a great majority
depicting resentment towards Athens. Now Corinth had dragged the entire
Peloponnesian league into her conflict with Athens which is one of the major
causes for the war.3
The war was on.
3
http://www.ancientworlds.net/ The Major Causes of the Peloponnesian War
http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Post/362821
Charbel Khoury
Athens was forced to undergo many changes that affected society for years
after the war. In September, 404 B.C.E, Thirty Tyrants began their rule at
Athens. They were put in charge by Lysander and ordered to draw up the new
constitution for Athens. The rule of the Thirty Tyrants rapidly degenerated to a
selfish bloody tyranny. Supported by their Spartan commanders they
proceeded to condemn and put to death their political enemies. There were
banishments and many fled because of fear to surrounding states. In spite of
orders from Sparta, the neighbors of Athens received the exiles with
sympathy and aid.
The Peloponnesian War was a catastrophe not only for Athens but also for
Greece. The Athenians meant to build up a lasting power, the strongest in
Hellas, to win the recognition of their political leadership for many or all the
other Greeks, and to lift their race to a political destiny worthy of its civilization.
Never again was Athens a first-rate power, although she remained the cultural
leader of Hellas. The result of the war was the crushing defeat of Athens and
the end of its empire. A more long-range result was the weakening of all the
city-states. This made them vulnerable to a takeover by Macedonia several
decades later.
It is clear that the events during the Peloponnesian War affected all of
Greece. The animosities of Athens and Sparta did not only affect their own
societies, but those of their allies, foes, and other Greek city-states.
The causes for the Peloponnesian war can not be solely attributed to the
Spartan fear of Athenian imperialism, but rather to a string of more complex
conflicts between the Peloponnesian league and Athens. In the evaluation of
Thucydides account, it can be considered an objective and valuable history of
the period; however the reliability of the source is still in question for some
modern historians.4
4
IBid
Charbel Khoury