Causes and Start of the Peleponesian War
"Surrounded by enemies abroad and at home, Pericles worked for peace and prepared for
war. Nevertheless, he sent envoys to all the Greek states inviting them to an Hellenic
Conference which would seek a peaceful solution. Sparta refused to attend, feeling her
acceptance would be construed as an acknowledgment of Athenian hegemony, and at her
secret suggestion so many other states rejected the invitation that the project fell
through." [Nordland notes]
1 Catalyst for the war was Corinth
a Wealthy polis located at the strategically important isthmus, where trading routes
from all points converged. Corinth had close commercial ties with colonies on the
western coast of Greece, traded with Italy and Syracuse — The Gulf of Corinth
served as a marine avenue between East and West — a ship railway (wooden rails)
spanned the Isthmus of Corinth — teams of oxen pulled ships across the isthmus
b Corinth and Corcyra feuded over Epidamnus (433 BC)
i Corinth — pro-Sparta — Epidamnians sought aid from Corinth in a rebellion
against Corcyra
ii Democratic Epidamnus had attacked its neighbors and exiled Epidamnian nobles
iii Epidamnus was a colony of Corcyra but Corinth had chose oecist of Epidamnus
iv Epidamnian democrats appealed to Corcyra for aid and were refused — The
oligarchy which ruled Corcyra was sympathetic to Sparta but there was a
considerable democratic element which favored joining the Delian Leage.
v Delphi oracle advised Epidamnus to seek Corinthian aid
vi Corinth sent aid — Corcyra represented a threat to Corinthian commercial interests
vii Corcyra demanded that Corinthians cease aid to Epidamnus
viii Corinth refused
ix Corcyra attacked Epidamnus
x Corinth prepared to attack Corcyra
xi Negotiations — Corinth refused to negotiate under pressure and Corcyra pledged
to end siege if Corinth evacuated Epidamnus — negotiations failed
xii War between Corcyra and Corinth
xiii Corcyrans won first naval battle but lacked allies
xiv Corinth prepared for a major war and lined up allies
xv Corcyra — allied with Athens — hoped to gain support for its efforts against its
rebellious colonists at Epidamnus — alliance joined two of the three largest navies
in the Greek world — ominous development for Corinth. Corcyrans asked help of
Athens — pointing out that a war with the Peloponnesian League was bound to
occur and that it would lend her sizable fleet to assist Athens in such a war.
xvi Corinth pleaded with Athens not to interfere pointing out that it had restrained
Sparta when the Samian revolt had occurred
xvii Speech of Pericles decided vote of the ecclesia — he had made up his mind that
war was inevitable and threw his support to the Corcyraeans
xviii Athens intervened in a major battle of Sybota on the side of Corcyrans — forced
Corinthians to withdraw
xix In 432 B.C. the Athenians ordered the city of Potidaea to dismantle part of its walls
and dismiss its magistrates. Potidaea was an Athenian ally and a Corinthian
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colony — located in Chalcidice peninsula — not far from canal Xerxes had dug
Founded by son of Periander in 7th century
Under Persian control at start of 5th century
Revolted after Battle of Salamis — member of Delian League — supplied ships
and then money
Remained loyal to Corinth
Athens concerned about threat if Macedonia seized Potidaea.
Concerned that Potidaea might become Corinthian base threatening Athenian trade
routes to Black Sea — Athens demanded that Potidaea abandon its pro-Corinthian
magistrates
Potidaea rebelled
Athens took two years to suppress the revolt
Besieged by an Athenian force
1,600 Corinthians hoplites came to aid of Potidaeans
Potidaeans defeated in battle
City fell to Athenians in 430
Sparta had pledged to fight if Athens attacked Potidaea
Megarian Decree also provoked hostilities — Athens barred the people of Megara
from the Athenian market and the ports in the Athenian empire. "Megara had
revolted in 446 against their "ally" Athens. Athens had made peace allowing for
Megaran autonomy but picked a quarrel — accusing Megarians of sacrilege — for
tilling some frontier land dedicated to Demeter. As punishment for this alleged
sacrilege Athens had closed her ports and markets to Megarian merchants and
compelled all her subject allies to do the same. This destroyed half of Megaraian
commerce at one blow. Megara sent repeated emissaries to beg the aid of Sparta."
[Nordland notes]
Attempt to compel the Megarians to become members of the Athenian empire
If Megara became tribute-paying ally, it would have access to imperial markets
Megarian decree suggests Athenain effort to create a trade zone embracing the
entire Aegean
Not really an issue for land-based Sparta but a real matter of concern for Corinth
Seen as step in Athenian effort to dominate markets in the Aegean, northwest
Greece and Magna Graecia
"Thus the coming of war awaited some provocative incident. In 435 Corcyra, a
Corinthian colony … joined the Athenian Confederacy. An indecisive naval battle took
place between Corcyra and Athens against Megara and Corinth. Pericles then ordered all
Megarian products excluded from the markets of Attica and the Empire. Megara and
Corinth appealed to Sparta…." [Nordland notes] Sparta decided for war and issued an
ultimatum, which Athens refused. War resulted.
1 Corinth urged Spartan ally to declare war on Athens — addressed Spartan apella
— Duty of a leader to lead and procrastination would be to advantage of Athens
2 Athenians made case before Spartan apella
a Earned right to empire and deference — previous exploits
i Faced Persians single-handedly
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Salamis prevented Persians from taking Peloponnesus
Fought instead of fleeing after Athens had been burned
Empire formed initially from fear
Empire formed because allies request Athens to lead
Once Sparta and its allies became hostile — no longer feasible to abandon empire
— fear, honor, interest
Stronger states should dominate weak states
Athens had treated its imperial subjects relatively well
Ruler is always resented
Sparta would be even more resented than Athens should it become the leader
"We have done nothing surprising, nothing contrary to human nature, if we accepted
leadership when it was offered and are now unwilling to give it up. There are three very
strong reasons why we should not do so, honor, fear, and self-interest. Nor are we the
first people to be in this position: it has always been a law of human society that the weak
are controlled by the strong." [Thucy. I.76.]
a Archidamus warned Spartans to consider decision to go to war very carefully
i War would be long
ii Theater of hostilities would be distant
iii Athens had superior navy
iv Athens was well prepared
v Athens had superior financial resources
vi Athens had large population
vii Athens had many allies — most were islands which would be difficult to seize or
support in case they rebelled
viii Athens can import food
Archidamus II: Eurypontid king of Sparta, 476-427 B.C. During the earthquake of 464
B.C. he saved Sparta by leading the army to face a potential helot attack. He played a
major role in the suppression of the helots at Ithome. During the diplomatic activity
preceding the Peloponnesian War (the first 10 years of which are named after him),
Archidamus urged restraint; he was a xenos (guest-friend) of Pericles. In 431, 430 and
428 he led invasions of Attica, and in 429 directed operations against Plataea.
a Sthenelaidas argued for war
i Allies must not be sacrificed to Athens
ii Duty to assist allies — cannot betray friends
iii Honor
iv Must oppose aggressors
v Athenian actions against Persia not relevant
a Apella voted for war --War broke out when Athens rejected the ultimatum of
Spartans — that Athens should "restore their autonomy to the states of Greece." —
Pericles replied that Athenians would give independence to their allies when Sparta
gave independence to her cities.
b Pericles did not particularly want the war but the oligarchs had been attacking him
and he was forced to seek the support of the city masses, the artisans and
commercial men who did want war and expansion [Nordland notes]
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Pericles advised Athenians on how to win the war
Come within the walls — avoid pitched battle with Spartan land army
Use fleet to keep allies loyal
Rely on fleet to bring in grain
Use fleet to attack Sparta’s allies
Do not venture to expand the empire
"It is unwise to go out of the city and fight a pitched battle. Instead, they should come
inside the walls and guard them. The fleet, in which their strength lay, was to be
thoroughly fitted out. The allies, too, should be kept under firm control, since Athens
depended on the income from their contributions. It was, he argued intelligent planning
and adequate finances which usually led to success in war." [Thuy. II. 13]
"Nearly all Greece ranged itself on one side or the other. Every state in the Peloponnesus
except Argos supported Sparta; Athens on the other hand had the half-hearted help of the
Ionian and Euxine cities and the Aegean isles. The Athenian fleet laid waste the coastal
towns of the Peloponnesus, while the Spartan army invaded Attica, seized the crops, and
ruined the soil. Pericles called the population of Attica within the walls of Athens,
refused to let his troops go out to battle, and advised the excited Athenians to bide their
time and wait for their navy to win the war." [Nordland notes]
"This policy seemed cowardly to some and it hard on the farmers to leave their homes,
shrines, vineyards, fields to the torch of the Spartans." [Nordland notes]
a Sparta had no navy but Corinth’s; it had the best disciplined army with 2,000
cavalry and 30,000 infantry (counting helots and periocoi). There was neither a
state income nor a surplus.
a Athens had 300 ships besides those of Corcyra, Chios, Lesbos. It had 6,000 talents
in reserve and an annual income of 1,000 talents of which 600 came from tribute.
i 1200 cavalry
ii 1800 foot arc hers
iii 13,000 hoplites I
Initial Course of the War —"During the subsequent Archidamian War, the Spartans
invaded every year and laid waste the countryside of Athens. Each summer, the
Athenians would pack their bags, collect their sheep, and come inside their walls,
watching the Spartans destroying their crops and cutting down their trees and vines."
A First Phase, 431-421 B.C.
1 First blood was shed at Plataea. A small Theban force seized the town by treachery.
But the Plataeans regrouped and recovered the town, massacring the Thebans. The
result was a siege that eventually caused the destruction of the city
2 Corinth and Sparta marched into Attica, 431
3 People of Attica withdrew within "Long Walls"–siege — farmers slept in temples;
huddled with few household furnishing — became homesick, worried, distrustful of
city-dwellers
4 Pericles did not call ecclesia into session for fear of a riot or vote leading to violent
action
5 Athenian navy swept seas and plundered coast of Peloponnesus
6 City of Potidaea fell to Athens & citizens were expelled.
7 Funeral Oration of Pericles — delivered by Pericles on the occasion of a pubic
funeral for the Athenian men who had died in the war in 431 B.C. "No finer
expression of the ideals of democracy exists than the famous Funeral Oration
delivered by Pericles in honor of the Athenians who fell fighting Sparta during the
first year (431 B.C.) of the Peloponnesian War. … it is considered one of the
greatest speeches in literature. Pericles appeals to the patriotism of his listeners,
confronted by the crisis of a great war, by describing the superior qualities and
advantages of their democracy as a heritage won for them by their ancestors and
worthy of any sacrifice to preserve. He emphasizes as the outstanding feature of
their democracy — and, … of any democracy — the harmonious blending of
opposite, tendencies in politics, economics and culture which it contains. This is
perhaps the finest expression of the Greek ideal of a mean between extremes. All
this is described in sharp contrast to the rigid totalitarianism of Sparta, which
regulated every detail of the citizen’s existence. It is to be noted that an outstanding
example of this happy blending of control and freedom in all phases of life was the
Athenian acceptance of the leadership of Pericles as the recognized superior
individual voted into power by the people to ‘lead them’ as Thucydides noted,
‘instead of being led by them. Pericles extends the same argument, that order and
liberty are compatible, to justify the existence of the Athenian Empire, which had
emerged after the Persian Wars to fill the vacuum left by the failure of Spartan
leadership in Greek affairs. It had unified and brought peace and prosperity to half
of the Greek world, but it was at present under attack by Sparta and its allies as the
‘tyrant city’ that had extinguished the liberties of many Greek states and was now
threatening the remainder. Perilces’ reply to this charge is an idealized
rationalization of the need to replaced the anarchy of narrow city-state ‘nationalism’
with an international organization under Athenian leadership in order to achieve the
political and economic well being …. The goal sought is freedom from fear and
want, and such is the meaning of Pericles’ inspired conception of Athenian
imperialism: ‘We are alone among mankind in doing men benefits, not in
calculations of self-interest, but in the fearless confidence of [bringing] freedom. In
a word I claim that our city as a whole is an education to Greece.’"
At this occasion ‘the dead are placed in coffins of cypress wood, one coffin for each tribe.
There is one empty litter decked with a pall for all whose bodies are missing. These
chests are conveyed by hearses to the public cemetery outside the walls. When the
remains of the dead have been placed in the earth, some man of high repute delivers
an oration over them. Pericles was chosen in 431." [Nordland notes]
a Reminded the people of the nature of Athenian civilization — He appealed to
patriotism. His survival depended on his ability to unify the Athenians. "Pericles’
speech is one of history’s finest statements of an organization’s shared values and
beliefs — its culture. It demonstrates that establishing a strong corporate culture (in
both modern and ancient societies) requires two things. First, a leader must
determine what it is that makes the organization different. Second, he or she must
effectively and eloquently communicate that difference to the organization’s
members."
b Emphasized the antiquity of Athenian tradition. He pointed out that Athens from it
its long and proud tradition had evolved a constitution which was something entirely
new — a step ;in building a case for what made the organization different. The
Athenian constitution had not been borrowed from another polis but instead was one
that others sought as a model.
c The Athenian government, according to Pericles had a number of virtues
i Rule of the many instead of the few
ii Equal justice
iii Recognition of excellence
iv Mobility based on merit
v Opportunity to participate in government regardless of economic means
Pericles praised democracy for leaving each man free to behave as he chooses, for
considering men equal and giving the poor man a chance to govern if it is
considered he can help the city, for leaving their city free to foreigners and hiding
nothing, for believing in the good things of life, in festivals, joy and refinement, for
not training themselves for war as the Spartans did and yet fighting just as bravely
when war came.
i Athenian democracy encouraged thought before action. Informed decisions resulted
from discussion and deliberation
d. Outlined the ideal Athenian
i harmony
ii wholeness
iii public-spirited
iv loyal
v self-reliant
vi resourceful
vii enterprising
viii versatile
ix refined — but not extravagant
x knowledgeable without being efeminent
xi individualistic
xii freedom-loving
a Focused on four cultural characteristics that made Athens unique
i He first exalted the positive aspects of Athenian life — its openness, its democratic
style, and its optimistic estimate of man’s capabilities and potentials. He made it
clear that membership in the Athenian organization was supremely valuable:
Athenian citizenship was the greatest prize a person could gain; the constitution of
Athens was not a mere collection of legalisms but a mode of life.. He underscored
the importance of democracy, job selection and promotion based solely on merit,
and the primacy of individual dignity
ii In words strikingly suggestive of the "work hard, play hard" of modern corporate
cultures, Pericles next emphasized the importance of just having a good time
iii Pericles gave his listeners further cause for pride in their organization (polis) by
reminding them that Athens was an opinion leader, an innovator. Athens did not
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emulate its competitors. Indeed it set the standard that others followed…
Finally, in an eloquent summation of Athens’ corporate culture (culture of the polis),
Pericles emphasized the balance achieved between the individual and organization.
Pericles speech reflected humanist ideas of the Greeks [humanism — the character
of quality of being human; a system or attitude in thought, religion, etc. in which
human ideals and the perfection of personality are made central. Study of the
classics, philosophy, literature, oratory, linguistics, history, the arts. Devotion to
human interests (as distinguished from divine) or with those of the human race.
Devotion to those studies which promote human culture: literary culture, history,
grammar, rhetoric, poetry, oratory, linguistics, the arts]
Man has the ability to reason
Man has the ability to govern himself
Man can appreciate art and beauty
Man can perform physical feats with grace and skill
Man can face danger with courage
Man can make decisions
Argued that ideal society was one that encouraged man to develop the full range of
his potential
Urged Athenians to seek balance and moderation in all things
Propaganda
Praised the political, military and cultural life of Athenians to arouse their patriotism
Implicit defense of his own policies
Greatly over-exaggerated and misrepresented the positive aspects of life in Athens
— "Athens was not the home of freedom and equality hymned by Pericles. One
third of her population were slaves and formed no part of the citizen body. True, the
life of an Athenian domestic slave was better than that of a Spartan helot. Plato, a
generation after Thucydides, says satirically that in democracies slaves are as free as
their owners; but as he goes on to complain of the freedom of domestic animals in a
democracy, it is difficult to take him very seriously. Demosthenes, a generation later
still, congratulates the Athenians on their mild treatment of slaves. The fact remains
that slaves were liable to be bought and sold, to be flogged at the will of their
owners, to toil under hard conditions on the land or in the mines or workshops, and
to give evidence under torture if a litigant required it and their owner agreed. No less
excluded from citizenship were the many aliens who settled at Athens to trade, and
who were debarred from naturalization by a law of Pericles restricting the franchise
to men of Athenian descent on both sides.
Athens was the "school of Hellas" — the superiority of Athenian model was present
for all to see and imitate
No Homer was needed to record the greatness of Athens — the city’s
accomplishments were memorials to its greatness
Those who died defending Athens were true heroes; "To die bravely in the face of
the enemy is glorious and the final consummation of individual manliness. The
heroes in Homer also knew the sweetness of life, but their fear of the reproaches of
others was greater than the fear of death, and honor was the sweetest thing of all. So
it was with these Athenians…. But this personal glory, real as it is, differs in an
important respect from the glory sought and won by Achilles or by Hector. These
Athenian dead are more than heroes and the reason is that they were, as Pericles
says, ‘worthy of their city.’ It would be easy, he points out, to show how necessary it
is to defend oneself against the enemy’s attack; but the conduct of these men goes
beyond this. They were not merely defenders; they were lovers of Athens."
m Duty of those Athenians who survived the dead to toil on behalf of the city
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Pericles claimed that "heroes have the whole earth for their tomb." -Glory is recognized and remembered by everyone throughout the world
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Pericles argued that a state should never "decline the dangers of war" —
anything worth having is worth sacrifice