THE Peloponnesian War put Athens and Sparta face to face on the battlefield for the hegemony of Greece. The rivalry between the two great Greek cities was the background of this conflict, but the disagreements between Athens and Corinth, an ally of Sparta, were the immediate factor that started it.
This conflict extended from 431 a. Ç. to 404 a. a., counting on a brief period of truce known like Peace of Nicias. The Spartans had the support of the Persians and, taking advantage of the indecision of the Athenians, they won the battle. The Peloponnesian War contributed to the weakening of the greek cities.
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Historical Background of the Peloponnesian War
The Peloponnesian War was one of the most remarkable and important events in the history of Ancient Greece. First because it was a conflict that caused deep transformations in Greek history, but, in addition, a series of innovative strategies were used by the two great forces of this clash.
This war demonstrated the degree of polarization in Greece between Athens and Sparta, and the scope of the conflict, which was not limited to Mainland Greece, evidenced the strength of these two cities. To understand why these rivalries disputed, it is important to know the context of Greece in the 5th century a. Ç.
The development of Sparta and Athens made them both take different paths, with totally different models. on the one hand, Athens developed as a democracy, which expanded participation in politics to all citizens born in Athenian territory, while Sparta had a model oligarchic, that limited that participation to an elite.
This difference in the governmental models adopted generated a rivalry between Athens and Sparta, but at the beginning of the 5th century BC. C., this rivalry was set aside when the Persians decided to invade Greece. A league of Greek cities was formed, which joined forces to defeat the invaders, and among them were Athens and Sparta.
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However, even with the war, the separation between Athens and Sparta continued to exist, with each city acting to ensure its own interests. Sparta was part of the Peloponnese League, a union of cities in the Peloponnese region, in which Sparta was the hegemonic force and imposed its interests among the members.
This alliance guaranteed troops to Sparta when necessary, as well as important economic agreements with other kingdoms, and intensified the Spartan force in the Peloponnese. The Athenians, in turn, sought to strengthen their influence in the Attica region and consolidate their position as a maritime force in the Greek world through the Delos league.
This league was formed shortly after the Medical Wars and was created as a means of prevention against a new Persian invasion, however, it ended up being used by Athens to strengthen its empire. The Athenians transferred league funds to Athens and used them to build a large naval fleet.
This context led to a growing polarization in Greece between the two cities, which sought to expand their influence to other Greek cities. It was this dispute for influence and hegemony that caused the war to start, in 431 BC. Ç.
Read more: Battle of Salamina – one of the most decisive battles between Greeks and Persians
Dispute between Athens and Corinth
The Peloponnesian War was a direct result of dispute of interests between Athens and Corinth, allied city of Sparta and member of the Peloponnese League. This dispute and the claims of Corinth forced Sparta to declare war on the Athenians because the Spartans could not lose their alliance with Corinth.
Traditionally the War of the Peloponnese is dated from 431 a. Ç. to 404 a. C, but the problems of Athens with Corinth were old and came from the decade of 450 BC. Ç. At this time, Corinth and Megara went to war for control of the isthmus that linked the Peloponnese Peninsula with Mainland Greece.
This war is called by some historians as First Peloponnesian War and demonstrates the framework of alliances and interests in Greece. It happened between 460 a. Ç. and 445 a. a., with Athens supporting Megara and Sparta supporting Corinth. In 445 BC C., a peace agreement valid for 30 years was signed, putting an end to the disagreement.
Beginning of the Peloponnesian War
The peace was reached, but the rivalry between Athens and Corinth remained, and the peace treaty of 445 a. Ç. reinforced the polarization between Athens and Sparta. In 440 BC a., the athenians intervened in a conflict between Samos and Mileto and, to support Samos, overthrew the oligarchic government of Mileto.
This sparked a revolt, and some cities allied to Athens considered abandoning it, demonstrating a certain weakness in Athenian rule. The existence of oligarchic groups within Athens was indicative of what the Athenians found in the Peloponnesian War, and this internal dissent is one of the great causes of their defeat.
Years later, Athens and Corinth again fell out, and this new crisis was caused by the dispute between corkyra and Epidam. The city of Epidamno turned to Corinth for help, and so Corcyra sought support in Athens. The Athenians sent forces that caused the Corinthian naval forces to retreat. The aim was to make Corinth give up the war against Corcyra alone.
Corinth was looking for allies to fight Athens, and the Athenians carried out an economic embargo on Megara and other cities as a way of forcing them not to ally themselves with Corinth. With this, Megara and Corinth demanded from Sparta an intervention against Athens. THE Peloponnesian League met, and decided on war. The Spartan claim to declare war was based on the charge that Athens had broken the peace treaty of 445 BC. Ç.
Accessalso: Thucydides' Account of the Peloponnesian War
Main events of the Peloponnesian War
THE Peloponnesian War lasted 27 years and was marked by a lot of oscillation, for at one time the Athenians imposed their strength, but at others the Spartans had the advantage. As is known, the Spartans got the better of the Athenians and forced them to surrender in 404 BC. Ç.
At the beginning of the war, the spartans made use of their larger and better prepared ground military forces, and invaded Attica (region where Athens is located). The ruler of Athens, Pericles, he decided to carry out an innovative tactic: he summoned the peasants to shelter within the Athenian walls and left the fields abandoned.
You Athenians decided to sustain their rule by sea, where they exercised the great strength of Greece, and strengthened their contact with the Egypt and Crimea, grain-producing places. The maintenance of the city would be done with the tributes of the League of Delos. As a counterattack, the Athenians used their fleet for coastal attacks on the Peloponnese, with the idea of forcing the Spartan armies to split in order to protect their coastal zone.
Pericles continued to adopt this strategy until the Spartan soldiers retreated to reap the harvest in Sparta. When that happened, he thought of advancing with the Athenian troops, but the Athens assembly did not agree with the idea of sending soldiers to face Sparta head-on.
This posture was one of Athens' great problems throughout the war: there was no unity in decision making, and lack of action often meant that Athenians failed to enjoy moments of Spartan vulnerability. The Athenian troops who remained in the city, as well as its entire population, were hit by the Athens Plague, an epidemic of an unknown disease that is believed to have killed 1/3 of the population. Pericles was one of the victims of this plague.
The first phase ended without major changes in the forces in the war, and the strategies followed until around 427 BC. C, with small battles going on. In 425 BC a., the athenians had an outstanding victory in Pilos, managing to imprison 292 soldiers Spartans, but some military defeats in the following years caused a peace agreement to be signed in 421 BC Ç.
This agreement was known as Peace of Nice and stipulated a 50-year truce. However, in 414 a. C., his determinations were officially abandoned. In practice, peace was never truly obeyed.
Defeat of Athens in the Peloponnesian War
After the Peace of Nicias agreement, the internal problems in Athens widened, and oligarchic groups among the Athenians began to strengthen. In addition, there was a lot of indecision in the choices made in Athens, with the population and city leaders not getting along. This greatly contributed to the city's weakening throughout the war. Pericles' leadership was lacking in Athens.
The Athenians tried to advance on the Peloponnese by means of a alliance with Argos (rival of Sparta), but the defeat of Argos in relation to Sparta, in 418 a. a., demonstrated the failure of the athenian intentions. In 415 BC a., Athens tried an attack against Spartan allies in Syracuse, and that expedition was a complete failure.
From 413 a. C., the spartans began to stifle the Athenian economy by take the silver mines of Athens. Without silver, Athens began to suffer financial problems, and this hurt the city's army. The accumulation of defeats made some cities abandon the alliance with Athens.
At this moment, Sparta had the support of Persia in the war and many allies of the Athenians offered the Spartans the possibility of changing sides in the conflict. The situation in Athens only got worse from then on, and in 405 a. C., the Athenians were defeated in the naval battle of Egospotamus. This defeat closed Athens' last grain route through the Hellespont.
the Spartan king, Pausanias, ordered a siege of athens that lasted six months. As Athens was hungry and surrounded, it decided to surrender to the Spartans in 404 a. Ç. After the surrender, Sparta tore down the walls of Athens and unraveled its rival's entire maritime empire.
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Consequences of the Peloponnesian War
The Peloponnesian War, in addition to marking the end of the athenian empire, began the brief period when the Spartans were the predominant force in Greece. With that, a series of oligarchic regimes were installed in several Greek cities. With the Spartan victory, the Persians, allies of Sparta, managed to extend their influence over some Greek cities.
O Spartan rule in Greece was too short. Spartan rigidity caused dissent to emerge, and new democratic groups strengthened decades later. Athens, for example, was soon able to restore its democratic system, and cities like Thebes became a great refuge for defenders of that system.
The wealth that flowed into Sparta with the victory caused internal divisions, and the sum of these factors— internal division and growth of opposition—caused Spartan rule to last for about 30 years only. In 371 a. C., the Spartans were defeated by the Thebans in a new conflict that mobilized Greece.
Another important consequence was the weakening of greece. So many wars in such a short time took a heavy toll on the Greeks, and this vulnerability allowed the Greeks to Macedonian (Hellenized peoples who inhabited the north of Greece) mobilized and conquered Greece, in 338 a. Ç.
By Daniel Neves
History teacher
