Lisarow High School
Ancient History -Periklean Age 1
The Periklean
Age
After the Persian army left
Greece, the people of the Greek cities returned home. The
Athenians, who were at Troezen, Aegina and Salamis after the battle
of Plataea returned and found their city in total ruin and the
countryside desolated. They soon started rebuilding the city and
began raising walls (478 BC). The Aeginitians immediately informed
Sparta, which with the pretext, that the fortifications would help the
Persians in another expedition, proposed to the Athenians to
demolish them. Of course Sparta only feared the rising power of
Athens.
Themistocles then devised a stratagem and as ambassador, together
with Aristides and Abronychos, went to Sparta, having left orders to
the Athenians to build the walls during his absence, as fast as they
could. At Sparta, he used all the power of his diplomacy to gain time
and when the Athenians who were working at the walls day and
night, men and women, informed him that the work was almost
finished, he announced it to the Spartans, who were compelled to
accept it. Though the walls were raised half the projected height
(raised about sixty feet), they secured the city and Themistocles
started his long pursued project, to turn Athens the greatest maritime
and commercial power of Greece. His plan was to build twenty
triremes every year, but his work was left unfinished.
Cimon
466 - 449 BC
The aristocratic party and their leaders, Alcmaeon, Cimon and
Xanthippos, under the influence of Sparta succeeded to ostracize
Themistocles, at 461 BC. In Athens, the new leaders Aristides and
Kimon continued the plans of the genius Themistokles. Aristeides
was responsible for the regulation of the Greek islands, that had
agreed to place themselves under the command of Athens. The
confederacy of Delos, which started in 477 BC, was not only confided
to the Ionians, but it was joined by all the Aegean islands. The
treasury of the league was in the sacred island of Delos. Aristeides
decided that some of the allies ought to keep a number of ships at
sea and the islands who could not afford it, to pay a contribution to
the treasury, starting thus the foundation for the naval dominion of
Athens.
Lisarow High School
Ancient History -Periklean Age 2
The war with Persia was still continuing and Kimon with a big
fleet sailed to Thrace and laid siege to Eion, on the Strymon
river (476 BC). The besieged, a Persian governor with his
garrison, after a hard struggle, rather than surrender, threw
the gold and the silver of the city in the river. He then raised a
pile of wood and burned his wife, children and slaves,
throwing himself after that in the flames. All the other Greek
cities except Doriskos, that had Persian garrisons, were
subdued. Kimon later sailed against Skyros (476 BC) and as
executor of the Amphictionic league, he expelled the Dolopian
pirates and brought Athenians to colonize the island. With
him, he brought the bones of the hero Theseus, who had been
assassinated in this island eight hundred years before. When the
island of Naxos in 466 BC, a confederate, refused to contribute in the
league, Kimon sailed with a large fleet and after forcing the Naxians
to submit, he enslaved them.
From Naxos, Kimon sailed to Asia and after assembling a fleet of two
hundred triremes, laid siege to the Greek city of Phaselis, and as
soon as the city was submitted, he sailed to the river Eurymedon in
466 BC, to attack the Persian fleet. After a complete victory, in which
two hundred ships were captured, Kimon pursued the Persians, who
had fled meanwhile to the land and defeated them. When he
received information, that eighty Phoenician ships were at Hydros, in
Cyprus, he sailed as fast as he could, defeating and destroying the
lot of them. This was the third victory in one day, of the glorious
general Kimon, lifting Athens to the highest point of her power.
Never was the influence of Kimon at the decisions of Athens greater.
From his vast fortune, he build at his own expense, the south wall of
the Acropolis. He also started building the walls, which would connect
the city of Athens with her ports (Piraeus, Phaleron). He planted the
garden of the Academy, as well the market with plane trees. When
the island of Thasos asked for rights to the ports and goldmines of
the coast of Thrace, which the Athenians possessed, Kimon with a
big fleet sailed to the island and defeated the Thasians, first at sea
and then at land, ravaging the place and laying siege to the city of
Thasos, which finally was submitted after three years (463 BC). The
Athenians pulled down the walls, took their ships and made them pay
a large sum of money. At the same time, Kimon brought ten
thousand Athenians to colonize the place, called the "Nine roads"
(renamed afterwards Amphipolis), opposite to Thasos. In the
meantime the Thasians, asked the help of Sparta, which was ready
to help them by sending an army to invade Attica, but they were
stopped, after a destructive earthquake destroyed the whole city of
Sparta (464 BC).
Lisarow High School
Ancient History -Periklean Age 3
That was the opportunity the Messenians were seeking to
revolt (3rd Messenian War 464 BC). Sparta with the help of
the Peloponnesians unable to reduce the stronghold of the
Messenians, Ithome, asked the help of the Athenians. The
democratic party led by Perikles, refused to help Sparta, but
Kimon persuaded them and leading an army reached Ithome. After a
failed assault on Ithome, in which Athenians took also part, Sparta
dismissed them. After this event, the insulted Athenians led by
Perikles, succeeded to ostracize Kimon.
Megara, offended with the Spartans, who were permitting the
Corinthians to harass them, made alliance with Athens (459 BC). As
a result of this action, a war opened between Athens and Corinth. A
small Athenian army, which landed at Halieis (459-458 BC), on the
Akte, was defeated by the Corinthians, but in a naval battle, between
Athens and Corinth, that took place near the little island Cekryphalea,
in the Saronic gulf lying between Aegina and the Argive shore, the
Athenians defeated the Corinthians. The Athenians defeated also the
Aeginitians and their allies, in a great naval battle near Aegina,
destroying and capturing seventy ships. After the battle, the
Athenians landed on Aegina and laid siege to the city, which was
taken after two years (457-456 BC). Aegina was forced to join the
confederacy, as the richest subject state.
When Corinthians and their allies invaded Megaris at 458 BC,
knowing that the Athenian forces were engaged at Aegina, the great
Athenian general Myronides, formed an army consisted from boys
and old men and marched to help the Megarians. In an indecisive
battle against the Corinthians, when the later left, the Athenians
raised a trophy. Reproached by the people of Corinth, the Corinthian
army returned after twelve days and started erecting a trophy. When
the Athenians took notice, they came out of the walls of Megara and
killed them, as well other forces, that came to their aid.
During the period Athens was winning these miraculous battles, a
part of her naval power was at Egypt, where 200 Athenian and
confederate ships were operating at the coast of Cyprus and
Phoenicia. There, they were invited by the Lybian prince Inaros, son
of Psammetichos, who had revolted against Persia. The Athenian
fleet sailed up to the Nile, only to find that Inaros had gained a victory
over the Persian army. The fleet then sailed to Memphis, where they
expelled the Persian forces, but failed to take the fortified citadel (459
BC). The siege of the fortress lasted for some years, when
Artaxerxes prepared a large army and a Phoenician fleet under the
command of Megabyzos.
Lisarow High School
Ancient History -Periklean Age 4
The Athenians were compelled to retreat to the island Prosopites, in
the Nile, where they resisted gallantly, until Megabyzos
with his fleet diverted one of the channels, which
formed the island and attacked them by land. The
Athenians, who had burned their ships, were forced to
capitulate. The Persians killed them all, except a few
soldiers, who escaped to Kyrene. Without knowledge of
the events, fifty Athenian ships which came for help,
they were defeated and almost all were destroyed.
Sparta jealous for the success of Athens, under the pretext of
assisting the Dorians, whose territory had been invaded by the
Phokians, sent fifteen hundred hoplites and together with ten
thousand allies marched into Doreis, compelling the Phokians to
withdraw. From Phokis, the Spartans marched to Boeotia according
to their plan, where they restored the fortification of Thebes and
reduced the other Boeotian cities to the obedience of Thebes. It was
there, that the Spartans received a proposition by the oligarchic party
of Athens, promising to assist them to overthrow the democracy.
When the Lakedaemonians took up position at Tanagra, on the
borders of Attica, the Athenians quickly assembled an army of 14,000
strong, including 1000 Argives and a Thessalian cavalry and
marched to engage them. Before the battle, the ostracized Kimon,
requested to fight in the battle as a mere hoplite. The Athenians,
suspecting that he had taken part in the oligarchic treachery, refused.
Kimon then left his armor to friends, telling them to fight for his honor.
One hundred of the friends of Kimon fell in the battle, after fighting
with heroism. The bloody and indecisive battle took place in 457 BC.
The Lakedaemonians gained the advantage, when the Thessalian
cavalry treacherously deserted the Athenians. The Spartans though
won the battle, they were in no condition to invade Attica and after
ravaging territories of Megara, withdrew. The ostracized Kimon, after
a proposal by Perikles, returned from exile.
At the beginning of the year 456 BC and two months after the battle
of Tanagra, the Athenians invaded Boeotia. The Boeotians
assembled a big army and came to Oenophyta, where a battle took
place, in which the brilliant Athenian general Myronides won a
complete and decisive victory. The Athenians after taking the
Boeotian towns, banished the Lakedaemonian collaborators and
established a democratic form of government.
One year after the battle of Oenophyta, Athens finished the long
walls. General Tolmedes with a fleet sailed to Peloponnesos and
burned the ports of the Lakedaemonians, Methone and Gytheion,
capturing also Naupaktos in Lokris, establishing there the
Messenians and Helots.
Lisarow High School
Ancient History -Periklean Age 5
In 452 BC, Athens and Sparta made a truce through the instigation of
Kimon, for a five years period. After the truce Kimon found the
opportunity to continue the war against the Persians. He sailed to
Cyprus with two hundred triremes of the confederacy. From there, he
sent sixty ships to Egypt to help the prince Amyrtaeos, who was
fighting the Persians at the Delta. Kimon with the remaining ships laid
siege to Citium at Cyprus. During the siege Kimon died and the
command of the fleet was given to Anaxicrates, who left Citium to
engage the Phoenician and Sicilian fleet at Salamis of Cyprus. The
Greek fleet gained a complete victory on sea and land and rejoining
with the sixty ships in Egypt, sailed to Athens.
At the year 448 BC, Athens had reached the greatest height of her
power, at sea and land. During the previous years, Athens had
acquired the alliance of Megara, Boeotia, Phokis, Lokris, Troezen
and Achaia and had also conquered the island of Aegina. The islands
belonging to the confederacy of Delos had become passive
tributaries and the treasury of Delos was transferred to Athens. But
after 448 BC, a progressive decline of Athens occurred.
In 447 BC, a revolution in Boeotia took place and an Athenian body
of one thousand hoplitae, mainly youthful aristocratic volunteers,
under the command of general Tolmedes, marched to Boeotia,
against the advice of Perikles, who told them to be patient and wait
until they collected a stronger force. Tolmedes and his men retook
Chaeronia, but when they were leaving, after a surprise attack by the
exiles of Orchomenos and others, they were defeated. Many
Athenians killed, including general Tolmedes, all the rest were taken
prisoners. To recover the prisoners, Athens was compelled to agree
to restore the exiles and permit the establishment of aristocracy in
the cities. The decline of Athens continued with the expulsion of
friends of Athens, from the government of Phokis and Lokris. Things
went worst, when Megara and Euboea revolted and the young king of
Sparta Pleistoanax invaded Attica, reaching as close as Eleusis.
Pleistoanax, who was probably bribed by Perikles, evacuated Attica
and later, he was found guilty of corruption and banished. Perikles,
who at the time of the invasion of Pleistoanax was at expedition at
Euboea returned to Athens. When the enemy withdrew, he went back
to Euboea, with five thousand hoplite and fifty triremes. After a short
time the island of Euboea surrendered, the landowners were expelled
and their properties were taken by Athenian colonists. Though the
land power of Athens was diminished, at sea she remained strong
and in 445 BC signed a treaty with Sparta, for thirty years.
Lisarow High School
Ancient History -Periklean Age 6
Perikles
444 - 429 BC
While Perikles was pursuing his plan to make Athens an empire, the
oligarchs led by Thoukydides (not the historian) were accusing him,
that Athens had not right to spent the contribution of her allies to
build temples, support campaigns, etc. Thoukydides was banished
in 442 BC, and Perikles became the undisputed leader of Athens,
until his death, in 429 BC. Perikles, in a period of twenty years,
changed the appearance of Athens, building in Acropolis the
masterpiece Parthenon. He did not only beautify Athens, but also her
port Piraeus, which had grown, since it had been fortified by
Themistokles. He appointed the architect Ippodamos, who rebuild
Piraeus, using a rectangular system where the main streets run
parallel to the streets at right angles. This was the first city to be build
in such way in Europe and its plan has been adopted by most of our
modern cities.
Among the measures to strengthen the Athenian empire were the
Klerouchies. The most important establishment of Klerouchoi took
place at the Thracian chersonese under his personal supervision.
Other settlements in Naxos, Andros, helped the unemployed
Athenian citizens, to whom were allotted farms.
Athens was prospering, her trade had been increased mainly due to
the decline of the merchant cities of Ionia and the diminished
Phoenician trade after the victory of Greece over Persia. Athenian
ships were bringing from Karthage corn, cheese and from Sicily pork,
from Tuscany metal works, carpets and cushions, from Pontos corn,
fish and wood. Athens at west had no colonies, like the competitor
Corinth. Themistokles had tried to persuade the Athenians to make a
settlement, but Athens had to wait until Perikles to execute his idea.
When the exiles from Sybaris asked the help of Athens to return to
their city, Perikles took the opportunity to lay the foundation of the
new city of Sybaris, from exiles and Athenians.
In 443 BC, under the guidance of the seer Lampon, a close friend of
Perikles, the colony of Thurii was founded not far from Sybaris. The
new city was designed by Ippodamos, the architect of Piraeus.
In Thrace a new city was founded at the chersonese and named
Amphipolis. It was soon flourished and played an important role in
the Athenian trade. Perikles was a successful military leader also. At
440 BC, Samos revolted and Perikles with forty four triremes sailed
to Samos and overthrew the aristocracy. When the Athenian fleet left,
the nobles returned and took possession of the city. Immediately
Perikles sailed back to Samos with two hundred triremes, blockaded
the island and forced them to surrender after nine months.
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Ancient History -Periklean Age 7
The terms of submission were to surrender their ships, pull down
their walls and pay the amount of one thousand five hundred talents.
Intellectually Athens at this time was at its highest, many
philosophers of Greece visited Athens.
The Peloponnesian war I
431 - 421 BC
The unavoidable clash between Sparta and Athens came with an
incident at the friendly to Athens city of Plataea, on March of 431 BC.
On a dark moonless night, a small Theban force of three hundred
men entered Plataea, with the help of a small party of oligarchs. They
went to agora, where they made a proclamation to Plataeans, to join
the Boeotian league. Due to the darkness, the Plataeans, who did not
know the number of Thebans, accepted, but when morning broke out
and saw the small number of them, they attacked and caught many
of them. When the Athenians learned about the episode, they sent a
herald with instructions not to injure the prisoners, but it was too late,
the prisoners 180 in number, had been executed. The Athenians
understanding the consequences of this episode, a clear violation of
the thirty years peace, they evacuated from Plataea the women,
children and old men and sent a large amount of provisions with an
Athenian garrison of 80 men.
Archidamos invaded Attica in the spring of 431 BC without
opposition, since Athens had taken the decision not to engage to a
land battle with Sparta and thus the Peloponnesian war started,
lasting for 28 years. The first ten years of the war (431- 421 BC) were
named "Archidamios war" from the name of the able king of Sparta
Archidamos.
On the side of Lakedaemonians were all the Peloponnesian states
with the exception of Argos and Achaea which entered the war
joining Sparta later. They were also the Boeotians, Megarians,
Lokrians, Phokaeans, Leukadians, Ambrakiotes and Anaktorians.
Lisarow High School
Ancient History -Periklean Age 8
The coast states supplied ships, the Boeotians,
Locrians and Phokians with cavalry.
On the side of Athens were the Plataeans, Chians,
Lesbians, Messenians, Corkyraeans, Zakynthians,
Akarnanians as well as the towns of the coast of
Asia and Thrace and all the isles of Aegean,
except Melos and Thera. The Athenian troops
were 29,000 hoplites, 1200 horsemen and 1600
archers and her navy was 300 triremes without counting those of her
allies. The Chians, Corkyraeans and Lesbians supplied shipping.
Archidamos forces which entered Attica consisted from about 60,000
to 100,000 men and at the beginning he tried unsuccessful attacks
upon the fortress of Oenoe, on mount Kithairon, failing to take it. He
then marched towards Eleusis, where he arrived at the middle of
June 431 BC. After ravaging the Thracian plain, he encamped at
Acharnae, seven miles from Athens.
In the meantime the Athenians had collected the population within
the walls and had sent all the animals to Euboea. Their fleet of 100
triremes and 50 from Corkyra, attacked the town of Methone on the
coast of Messene. It was thanks to the heroic young Spartan
Brasidas, who with 100 hoplites broke through the Athenian troops
and saved the city. After this, the Athenians left for the coast of Ellis,
which they ravaged. The Athenians also took revenge on the
Aeginitians, who regarded them as the chief cause of the war. They
expelled the population and brought Athenian colonists in the island.
Archidamos evacuated Attica at the end of July and his army was
dismantled immediately. Upon his departure, the Athenians under
Perikles at the end of September, attacked Megara, which they
ravaged totally.
The Athenians, after their successful expeditions, took the remains of
the fallen soldiers during the expeditions and buried them with full
honors, at the cemetery of Kerameikos, just outside the walls. An
empty bed covered with a sheet represented the soldiers whose
bodies had not been found. After the burial, Perikles made his
famous speach, Epitaphios, on the hill of Pnyx, opposite to Acropolis.
At the spring of 430 BC, Archidamos again invaded Attica, but in the
meantime the plague (λοιμός) had broken out in Athens.
Thoukydides, who caught the plague himself, gives a vivid
description of the sickness and a detailed account of the effects of
the pestilence, that had on the Athenians, both physical and moral.
The plague appeared first at the port of Athens Piraeus and soon
reached the city and left countless dead, who were left unburied. All
the temples were full of corpses and the public services were not
working.
Lisarow High School
Ancient History -Periklean Age 9
The epidemic decimated the one third of the Attic population and the
Athenians in vain asked from the Spartans to make
truce.
In the meantime, the Athenian fleet under Perikles,
with 100 triremes and 50 from Chios and Lesbos,
ravaged the coast of Epidauros, Troezen and
Hermione, destroying the city of Prasiae, on the
coast of Laconia. But the strong force that was
aboard the ships, 4000 hoplites and 300 cavalry failed to capture the
target of the expedition, Epidauros. Despite the plague, Athens had
successes. Potidaea, which had been seized, fell in the winter of 430
BC and cost to the Athenian state the incredible amount of 2000
talents.
The Lakedaemonians with greater force ravaged all the
neighborhood of Athens marching as far as the mines of Laurium,
but stayed in Attica only for 40 days, because of the fear for the
plague. In their turn Athenians, with 100 triremes under the command
of Knemos devastated the island of Zakynthos. When Perikles
returned, the Spartan forces had already left.
At the third year of the war (429 BC), Perikles died in the autumn,
from the plague and the political power of Athens now fell on
demagogues, who often been unable to persuade the middle class
and the aristocrats of Athens, they used cheap politics to stir up the
population with disastrous results. Archidamos marched towards the
city of Plataea and demanded to hand him over the city and their land
properties, promising that after the war, everything would be restored
to them. The majority of Plataeans were in favor of the proposal, but
Athenians exhorted them to hold out, promising them assistance.
After their refusal, Archidamos surrounded the small city of Plataea
and the famous siege started. For three months Spartans tried
everything to conquer the city, but without success. They then
decided to blockade and starve the population. For this, they
surrounded Plataea with a double wall, but even this measure had no
success. After two years, when the provisions of Plataea started to
run short, 212 men escaped in a stormy December night. The rest of
the population surrendered in 427 BC. They were put in trial before
five Spartan judges and executed. The town of Plataea was
transferred to Thebes, who after a few months destroyed all the
private houses to the ground.
In 429 BC, the Athenian fleet under the command of General
Phormio had successes. Phormio with 27 only ships, using excellent
strategy, defeated 47 ships of the Peloponnesian fleet. The same
year, Phormio had another naval victory, which took place in
Naupaktos.
Lisarow High School
Ancient History -Periklean Age 10
When Archidamos left Attica from his third invasion, Mytilene and the
whole island of Lesbos, except Methymna, revolted (428 BC). The
Athenians blockaded the two harbors, Mytilene and Pachaes and
after one year, Mytilene surrendered (427 BC). It was decided then
by the Athenians and a trireme was sent to Pachaes with the order,
that all males of Mytilene ought to put to death and the women and
children to be enslaved. It was thanks to the speech of the Athenian
Diodotos, who persuaded the Athenians, that an inhuman foreign
policy was not in their interest, that the Mytilians were spared.
The speech changed the mind of the people and another trireme was
sent, which the Mytilenian envoys supplied with crew promising big
rewards, if they were arrived before the trireme, which had been sent
the previous day. Fortunately for the Mytilenians, the ship arrived on
time and the population was saved.
In the fourth and fifth year of the war Spartans again invaded Attica.
In the sixth year of the war (426 BC) the Spartans did not invade
Attica. A series of severe earthquakes and floods occurred in various
parts of Greece. At Athens the plaque reappeared.
During the seventh year of the war the Lakedaemonian army under
the command of Agis invaded Attica, but only for the sort time of
fifteen days. Agis was recalled and marched towards Pylos, because
the Athenians had established a military post at Pylos in Messenia.
The Peloponnesian fleet that was in Corkyra under the command of
Thrasymelidas, was also ordered to sail to Pylos. Thrasymelidas, on
his arrival at Pylos with his fleet, occupied the small but densely
wooded island of Sfacteria with four hundred and twenty hoplites and
their helots. Part of these men, 292, among them many belonging to
chief families, were later captured by the Athenian Kleon and brought
to Athens in chains, the rest had been killed after a severe conflict on
the islet. This event surprised the Hellenic world who knew that
Spartans never surrendered. Sparta was now in a bad position. The
Messenians from Pylos together with the runaway helots were able to
plunder the country, also Sparta could not invade Attica, knowing that
the captured men would put immediately to death.
The eighth year of the war (424 BC) was disastrous for Athens. They
defeated at the battle of Delium, by the Thebans. They also lost
Thrace. After all these Athenians seriously considered the proposals
for peace by Sparta.
In the ninth year of the war (423 BC) a truce was signed for a year, in
which a permanent peace would be prepared. But the negotiations
were interrupted two days after the signing of the truce, when
Athenians learned that Scione had revolted and was under the
command of Brasidas. In August, an Athenian force by the command
of Kleon was sent to Scione.
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Ancient History -Periklean Age 11
At the battle that followed, both Kleon and Brasidas were killed and
thus the obstacles for permanent peace seized to exist.
The Spartan king Pleistoanax and general Nikias of Athens, in the
spring of 421 BC, signed a peace treaty for fifty years, the so-called
peace of Nikias. The Spartan prisoners were returned and Athens
was allowed to keep the cities of Anactorium, Sollium and the port of
Megara, Nisae. Not everybody was satisfied with the peace and the
allies of Sparta, Corinth, Thebes, Megara and Eleans refused to ratify
it.
During the truce between Sparta and Athens, matters were far from
being satisfactory. Her allies, Boeotians and Corinthians never
accepted the peace and Athens refused to evacuate Pylos.
Alkibiades of Athens persuaded both Achaea and Patrae to ally with
Athens and helped Argos in the attack upon Epidauros, which they
ravaged. Spartans could not accept all these and assembling a large
army in which her allies were participating, invaded Argos and
surrounded the Argive army. A battle was ready to start when two
Argive oligarch leaders came to king Agis of Sparta and persuaded
him to sign a truce for four months. A little later Alkibiades leading a
force of one thousand hoplites and four hundred cavalry came to
assist Argives and persuaded them to attack the city of Orchomenos
in Arcadia. After they conquered Orchomenos they marched against
Tegea. In the meantime king Agis, who had being blamed for the
truce with the Argives, marched with a large force in the territory of
Mantinea and positioned himself near the temple of Hercules. The
Argives and their allies left the city of Mantinea and in a well chosen
ground offered battle. King Agis was ready to attack them at this
advantageous for the Argives ground, but when the Spartans came
close, an old Spartan warrior told him, that with his act was trying "to
heal one mischief by another". These words made him to withdraw
his men. After this, the Argives took position in the plain and tried to
attack them by surprise. The right section of the Argive army, which
was consisted from the flower of aristocracy, a permanent body of
one thousand chosen soldiers drilled and maintained by the city of
Argos, were successful to route the Lakedaemonians, but Agis with
the rest of his army which was more successful, he managed to win
the battle (June 418 BC). Athenians lost two hundred hoplites
included the generals Laches and Nikostratos, the Argives and their
allies lost another nine hundred men. From the Lakedaemonian army
only three hundred men lost. Even after all these, the peace of Nikias
typically was still in existence.
Lisarow High School
Ancient History -Periklean Age 12
In the year of 416 BC, the Athenians with 32 triremes and under the
influence of Alkibiades attacked without any provocation the island of
Melos, which did not belong to the confederacy of Delos.
The Athenians, at first tried to persuade the people of Melos to
surrender, using the arguments of the "law of nature", that the
stronger should rule over the weaker. But when they were rejected,
they blockaded the island, which after few months surrendered. All
men of military age were put to death. The women and children were
sold as slaves and Melos was colonized by Athenians.
The Peloponnesian war II
415 - 404 BC
At the end of 416 BC, ambassadors from the city of Egesta in Sicily
came to Athens, to ask for help against the Dorian city of Selinos,
which was assisted from the city of Syracuse. General Nikias refused
to accept such a dangerous and costly expedition, but the Athenian
people led by Alkibiades took the decision to help them, since the city
of Egesta proposed to undertake the expenses. At the beginning, it
was voted to send 60 triremes under the leadership of Nikias, with
Alkibiades and Lamachos, as generals. Nikias, who knew exactly
how difficult was such an expedition, urged the Athenians to send a
bigger fleet or cancel the project. Pressed by the Athenians, he
proposed instead, a fleet consisting from 100 Athenian triremes, plus
allied ships and a very large force of soldiers.
In the spring of 415 BC, the fleet was ready to depart, carrying about
1500 Athenians and 3500 allied hoplites, and about 1300 archers
and slingers. The were ready to sail, but an unexpected event
delayed it. One morning in May, the Athenians found out that the
Herms, which stood at the entrance of temples and private houses,
were broken. The event horrified the people and the name of
Alkibiades was mentioned, but his enemies decided to bring charges
in his absence.
Lisarow High School
Ancient History -Periklean Age 13
In the morning of departure, the whole Athens came to the port of
Piraeus to see the big armada and give them farewell. The fleet
sailed at Corkyra first, where they were joined by their allies, bringing
the total number of the ships to 134 triremes and two Rodian
penteconters. The ships had on board 5000 hoplites, 480 bowmen,
700 Rodian slingers. The big armada was accompanied with at least
500 transport ships, which carried provisions.
On their arrival in Sicily, general Lamachos wanted an immediate
attack against the city of Syracuse, but Alkibiades and Nikias
refused. Alkibiades proposed a diplomatic campaign, which would
bring them allies and thus the whole summer was wasted. In the
meantime, Alkibiades was recalled to Athens to answer charges,
particularly the profanation of the Eleusinian mysteries. During his
return trip to Athens, Alkibiades escaped and later went to Sparta.
Next year (414 BC) in the spring Nikias, who had exhausted all
excuses for delay, prepared his army to attack Syracuse. After
forcing the Syracusan army within the walls, he started constructing a
double wall from sea to sea, preparing a blockade. The hero general
Lamachos was killed during a battle, after trying to destroy the
Syracusan fortifications.
Meanwhile, Alkibiades at Sparta did not waste time and advised them
to renew the war with Athens, take hold of the strategic fort of
Dekeleia and send a general to the city of Syracuse. The Spartans
send general Gylippos with four ships. Though his force was small,
he helped greatly Syracuse to win the war. He firstly captured the
Athenian fort at Labdalum. This action made him master of the high
ground Epipolae. He then constructed a counter wall to intersect the
Athenian lines at the north side and so the Atenians from besiegers
became besieged. This small participation of Sparta in the war was of
the outmost importance.
Nikias in the hopeless position asked help from Athens, who send a
big force consisting from 73 triremes and 5000 soldiers, under the
able general Demosthenes. Upon his arrival Demosthenes and
during the night tried to regain the high ground, but the operation
failed. After this Demosthenes pressed Nikias to withdraw, but the
general refused. Nikias was persuaded to withdraw, only when
Syracuse was further reinforced, and his forces had deteriorated. But
an eclipse of the moon, which occurred on August 27th, delayed the
withdrawal and when the soothsayers were consulted, they told them
to wait at least three days and others, for the next full moon. The
delay gave time to the Syracusans, who upon learning that the
Athenians were ready to retreat, lined up their fleet of 76 ships in the
Great harbor, ready for battle. On September 3rd, 86 Athenian
trieremes moved out to meet them.
Lisarow High School
Ancient History -Periklean Age 14
After hard battle the Athenians, who were at disadvantage, having no
room for maneuvering their ships, lost the battle and their general
Eurymedon was killed.
When the Syracusans blockaded the entrance of the bay with old
ships (September 6th-8th), the Athenians tried once more to free
themselves. On September 9th, general Nikias took the decision to
attack the Syracusans once more and did everything possible to
encourage the army visiting every trireme. The Athenians lined up
their ships and attacked, but after a long and wavering battle, they
were forced to the shore. General Demosthenes proposed to make
another attempt to pass the barrier, but the soldiers refused to
embark. The Athenians with many wounded people between them,
abandoned their ships and tried to retreat into the interior. Their aim
was to escape by land and reach the city of Katane. During their
march the Athenians encountered the Syracusans many times, but at
the end general Nikias surrendered the army to Gylippos, hoping to
be treated fairly. General Nikias and Demosthenes were killed and
the Athenian army were herded into the stone quarries of Syracuse.
In terrible conditions, after eight months most of them died and the
few that survived became slaves.
The disaster of the Sicilian expedition, it was a terrible blow, but
Athens did not collapse. To make things worst, Dekeleia had been
occupied by the Spartans, the silver mines at Laurio had been closed
and nearly all the food was imported. In this situation, a peaceful
revolution took place in Athens (411 BC), after one hundred years of
democracy. The Council of Four hundred became the new
administrative body, after the Athenian people were promised, that
the change of the constitution was temporary, for the duration of the
war. When the Lakedaemonian fleet defeated the Athenians near
Eretria, in a small naval battle, the whole Euboea revolted and
Athens lost the main supplier of food. After this incident, an assembly
at the Pnyx, deposed the Four hundred and voted for a new
government of five thousand leading citizens, who tried to make
peace with Sparta, but without result. When the Athenian fleet and
army based at Samos pressed for democracy, the oligarchs came in
disagreement and within two years from the revolution, the
democracy was restored.
In August of 411 BC, the Peloponnesian fleet commanded by
Mindaros lost the naval battle at Kynossema. The Athenian fleet
though smaller in force, in the straits of Sestos and Abydos, gained a
complete victory.
In 410 BC, Alkibiades managed to capture the whole Peloponnesian
fleet at Kyzikos.
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Ancient History -Periklean Age 15
Mindaros was killed and the second in command Spartan sent a
letter to the Ephors, in Laconic form: "Ships gone; Mindaros dead;
men starving; no idea what to do."
Spartans were so discouraged, that they sent the Ephor Endius to
Athens for a peace agreement but the Athenians, who were
influenced by the demagogue Kleophon, rejected the offer. The
victory at Kyzikos gave new hope to the Athenians, who restored
their fleet and cut gold and copper coins. To give employment to the
many skilled workers, the Athenians started building a new temple on
the Acropolis, the Athena Polias, the so-called Erechtheion.
Spartans now appointed a new navarchos, the able man Lysander.
When his turn of command expired, he was succeeded by
Kallicratidas, who increased the number of ships of the Spartan
fleet. There was a naval battle at the harbor of Mytelene with the
Athenian fleet under Konon. The Athenians, who were outnumbered,
lost the battle and thirty ships. Another forty ships were saved by
bringing them ashore, near the walls of the town.
Kallicratidas then blockaded the island. When the news arrived at
Athens they sent a fleet of one hundred and ten triremes and they
were reinforced with another forty later. The number of ships of
Kallicratidas were one hundred and twenty. At the small island of
Arginusae, the Athenian fleet met the Spartan and after a hard
struggle defeated them (406 BC). The Lakedaemonians lost seventy
seven ships and the rest were retreated at Chios and Phocaea.
Kallicratidas was thrown overboard, when his ship was hit by another
and perished. The Athenians lost only twenty five ships.
Though it was illegal for an admiral to have a second term, Lysander,
with the title of Epistoleus (bearer of letters), took the command of
the Spartan fleet. He immediately obtained large sums of money from
Kyros, king of Persia, to rebuild the fleet and made siege on
Lampsakos.
The Athenians, who came to help, arrived too late to save the city
and took post at Aegospotami (Goat's river) close to the city of
Lampsacus. Lysander who systematically avoided a naval battle,
since his ships were outnumbered, he managed to capture the
Athenian fleet after treachery or negligence of the Athenian generals.
All 4000 Athenian prisoners were put to death. This event
substantially marked the end of Athens.
Lisarow High School
Ancient History -Periklean Age 16