THE WarofPeloponnese it was a conflict that happened from 431 BC. Ç. to 404 a. C., being motivated by the rivalry between Athens and Sparta, the two largest polis of ancient Greece. In this conflict, the hegemony of these cities over the entire Greece, with the Spartans being the most interested in him because the Athenians were rapidly prospering with the League of Delos.
The conflict was triggered by Athenian imperialism and its interference in matters of interest in Corinth, an allied city of Sparta. Over the 27 years of war, the Spartans managed to take advantage of the internal divisions of Athens and, counting on the support of the Persia, defeated the Greeks.
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General context of the Peloponnesian War
![Pilos coastline, attacked by the Athenians in 425 BC. Ç. The Spartans were defeated in this battle.[1]](/f/92c7e6868fd8e837411cab1936847bfe.jpg)
The Peloponnesian War was one of the main conflicts in the Ancient Greece. She was the result of rivalry between Athens and Sparta
and it was directly caused by the economic, political and military interests of the two cities in the 5th century BC. Ç. Behind these interests was the question of the differences between the models of the two cities.The beginning of the V century a. Ç. was marked by the union of Athenians and Spartans to contain the Persians, who sought to conquer Greek cities during the Medical Wars. This union took place through the Hellenic League, created so that Greek cities could cooperate with each other in order to expel the Persians. However, the Spartans, thinking of their interests after the conflict, sought to create the Peloponnese League.
This league was called by the Spartans "Lacedemons and their allies" and consisted of a union of the cities of the Peloponnese, the peninsula where Sparta was located. This league was used by the Spartans as a way of gaining military support if it was necessary to fight the populations of hellots and periecos. In addition, the league was used to maintain Sparta's contacts with realms such as the Egypt.
After the Persians were definitively defeated, the Athenians followed the same path as Sparta and founded a league that would unite different Greek cities. At Delos league, all the cities that were part of it had to pay a tax that would be administered by the Athenians to build a great naval fleet that would defend the interests of all of them.
This scenario led Greece to a progressive polarization which resulted in the war between Athenians and Spartans. The tensions that accumulated throughout the V century; Ç. they brought Athens and Sparta to war, but even before that, a series of small conflicts took place.
Phases of the Peloponnesian War
Traditionally, the Peloponnesian War is understood as a conflict that took place between 431 a. Ç. and 404 a. Ç. Throughout this period, historians divided it into phases, as the struggle between the two cities was not continuous because there were short moments of peace. The conflict itself had many ups and downs, with times when the Athenians had the upper hand, and at others the Spartans occupied a more comfortable position.
With regard to periodization, some historians tend to understand the Peloponnesian War as a combination of conflicts that took place in two phases. THE firstphase it is commonly known as the First Peloponnesian War, from 460 BC. Ç. to 446 a. Ç. THE Mondayphase it was the War of the Peloponnese itself and it extended for the mentioned period (431-404 a. Ç.).
This understanding is not shared by other historians, who understand the First Peloponnesian War (460-446 a. C.) as a prelude, an event that demonstrated the clashes of interests between Athenians and Spartans and that resulted in a much larger conflict years later.
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Causes of the Peloponnesian War
It is considered that the main reason for the start of the Peloponnesian War was the rivalry between Athens and Sparta. At the beginning of this conflict, the war was most desired by the Spartans, as they feared the strengthening of Athens through the League of Delos, they thought that this could harm the interests of the Spartans, the Spartan elite.
The big question concerned the different models that the two cities adopted. You spartans had a polisaristocratic, also known as oligarchic. In this model, a small elite controlled politics. You athenians, in turn, had a modeldemocratic, which extended this participation in politics to other groups in society. The Spartan elite feared that Athenian empowerment would result in the importation of their democratic model to Sparta.
The dispute for the hegemony of Greece made the two cities carry out a series of diplomatic, political and military actions aimed at defending their own interests. Athens, for example, sought to protect itself territorially by guaranteeing support that would prevent any possible Spartan military action in Attica (where Athens is located).
The Athenians, for example, decided to ally themselves with argos, the great rival of the Spartans on the Peloponnese peninsula (where Sparta is). Another action by Athens in this regard was to ally with Megara when it went to war with Corinth over territorial issues. With that, Athens contributed to weaken Corinth, one of the great allies of Sparta, and also guaranteed the protection of the isthmus of Corinth, the place that linked Attica with Laconia (where Sparta is located).
The immediate causes for the start of the Peloponnesian War are related to events that took place in the 430s BC. Ç. First, there was the issue involving corkyra and Epidam. These two cities went to war, and Epidamnus sought support from Corinth—an ally of Sparta—while Corcyra sought support from Athens.
Athens sent a small fleet to protect Corcyra from an attack by Corinth. The Corinthian fleet fled, and its authorities sought the support of the Peloponnesians to fight Athens. Corinth had Megara's support, and Athens responded by imposing an economic embargo on Megara. Athens still intervened in Potideia, demanding that she tear down its walls and expel the Corinthian representatives who lived there.
These Athenian actions brought Corinth and Megara to the attention of Sparta, who convened the assembly among the members of the Peloponnesian League, and, in that assembly, decided for war. Sparta, as we have seen, wanted war, and it was the Spartans who declared it first, but it was the Athenian interventions that brought the situation to this point and provided the justification for them.
Main events of the Peloponnesian War
The Peloponnesian War, throughout its 27 years of duration, had moments of Athenian or Spartan predominance, but in the end, Spartan strategy stood out from that of the Athenians. At first, the Spartans sought to carry out their traditional tactics, leading thousands of soldiers overland to invade Attica and occupy the productive lands of Athens.
Athens, in turn, knew that the land troops of the Spartans were superior and, therefore, sought to secure its power by sea. Thus, the population of Attica was summoned to settle within the Athenian walls, the rulers of Athens expanded tax collection in the Liga de Delos and sought to guarantee the city's food supply by bringing grain by sea. Militarily, the Athenians used their maritime force to attack the coast of the regions dominated by Sparta and decided not to attack the Spartan troops by land.
This strategy was severely hampered by the Athens plague, an epidemic that attacked the city in 430 a. a., causing that the men who had not died in the war died by the disease. one of the dead was pericles, the Athenian ruler and formulator of this strategy.
After Pericles' death, Athens' strategy was inconsistent because Athenian elites held more positions. conservative in relation to the action of their troops, while the population in general defended the expansion of war and confrontation open. This caused some political problems in the city. In any case, Athens had significant victories both on land and at sea.
You spartans, in turn, sought the support of the Persians to defeat the Athenians. They knew how to take advantage of the tensions that happened behind the scenes of Athens, and, despite some defeats, Sparta knew how to resist, dominating the conflict from 413 a. C., when took the silver mines of Athens.
Athens' succession of defeats after it lost access to its silver mines caused some Allied cities to rebel against the Athenians. Soon the Spartans began to rely on the support of oligarchs in Athens who wanted their city to be defeated so that democracy could be abolished.
Through Persian support, the Spartans managed to assemble a huge maritime fleet that, little by little, managed to close the routes that brought food to Athens. In 405 BC a., the Spartans managed to defeat the Athenians in the Hellespont, strait that gave access to the Athenian colonies from the Black Sea.
With that, the Spartans managed to close the last food route from Athens. With few resources and food, Athens was isolated, and the Spartans promoted a siegethat lasted six months. After that time, already in 404 a. Ç., Athens surrendered. The Spartans destroyed the Athenian walls, and the entire empire of Athens was disbanded.
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Consequences of the Peloponnesian War
The Peloponnesian War changed the course of Greek history. With the Spartan victory, Greece came under the rule of the Lacedemonians and oligarchic regimes were implemented throughout its territory, including Athens. However, the rigor of Spartan rule did not please many Greek cities.
Furthermore, the great wealth that began to flow into Sparta caused internal divisions in this polis. Over time, Athenian democracy recovered, managing to revise part of its allies. However it was the city of Thebes that became the new center of the democratic model, being even a refuge for many Athenians after the defeat.
the Peloponnesian War weakened greece and it did not end the tensions between the Greek polis. Soon new conflicts between Sparta and Thebes broke out, and this made Greece vulnerable to foreign threats, making room for the Macedonian conquer it, decades later, under the leadership of Philip II.
Image credits
[1] of visu and Shutterstock
