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Peloponnesian War
http://www.mrdowling.com/701-peloponnesian.html
The Golden Age of Greece was short lived. Athens and Sparta were both powerful poli, and each
wanted to spread their way of life. Sparta attacked Athens in 431BC, beginning the brutal 27year-long Peloponnesian War.
One out four people in Athens died shortly after the war began, but not because they were
defeated in battle. When Sparta attacked, the Athenian people crowded behind the walls of the
city. The cramped and dirty living conditions were an easy target for disease. A plague, or great
sickness, spread through the city. Sickness claimed the life of Pericles, the leader of Athens.
Once Pericles died, the people began to listen to demagogues. Demagogues were bad leaders
who appealed to people’s emotions rather than logic.
Sparta eventually defeated Athens by building blockade around the walls of the city. This is
called a siege. The people of Athens could not leave to get supplies or food from the countryside.
Faced with starvation, Athens surrendered to Sparta in 404BC.
The Peloponnesian robbed Athens of its Golden Age. Great thinkers and teachers lived in Athens
during and after the war but the era of support for new ideas and the spirit of democracy had
passed.
Timeline
http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/peloponnesianwar/a/timepelopwar.htm
Ancient Greek Events Timeline
The Peloponnesian War was fought between two groups of Greek allies. One was the Peloponnesian
League, which had Sparta as its leader. The other leader was Athens who had control of the The
Delian League.
Before the Peloponnesian War
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477
451
449
446
432
B.C. - Aristides forms Delian League.
- Athens and Sparta sign five-year treaty.
- Persia and Athens sign peace treaty.
- Athens and Sparta sign 30 years peace treaty.
- Revolt of Potidaea.
1st Stage of the Peloponnesian War (Archidamian War) from
431-421
Athens (under Pericles and then Nicias) successful until 424. Athens makes little forays on the
Peloponnese by sea and Sparta destroys areas in the countryside of Attica. Athens makes a disastrous
expedition into Boeotia. They try to recover Amphipolis (422), unsuccessfully. Athens fears more of
her allies would desert, so she signs a treaty (Peace of Nicias) that allows her to keep her face,
basically setting things back to how they were before the war except for Plataea and Thracian towns.
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431 - Peloponnesian War begins. Siege of Potidaea.
430 - Plague in Athens.
Pericles, Leader of the Athenians
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429
428
427
421
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Pericles dies. Siege of Plataea (-427).
Revolt of Mitylene.
Athenian Expedition to Sicily. [See map of Sicily and Sardinia]
Peace of Nicias.
2nd Stage of the Peloponnesian War from 421-413
Corinth forms coalitions against Athens. Alcibiades stirs up trouble and is exiled. Betrays Athens to
Sparta. Both sides seek the alliance of Argos but after the Battle of Mantinea, where Argos loses most
of her military, Argos no longer matters, although she becomes an Athenian ally.
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415-413 - Athenian expedition to Syracuse. Sicily.
3rd Stage of the Peloponnesian War from 413-404
Under the advice of Alcibiades, Sparta invades Attica. Athens continues to send ships and men to
Sicily even though it is disastrous. Athens, which had started the war with the advantage in naval
battle, loses this advantage to the Corinthians and Syracusans. Sparta then used Persian gold from
Cyrus to build her fleet and destroys the Athenian fleet at the Battle of Aegosotami. The Spartans are
led by Lysander.
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404 - Athens surrenders.
Peloponnesian War ends.
Athens loses its democratic government. Control is put into the Board of 30. Sparta's subject allies
have to pay 1000 talents annually.
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Thirty Tyrants rule Athens.
http://greece.mrdonn.org/peloponnesianwar.html
After the Persian Wars, the Greeks wanted to make sure they were ready if the Persians ever
returned. The Greek city-states formed the Delian League.
The purpose of the Delian League was to put money into a shared treasury, to have on hand in
case of war. It took money to make weapons and ships and to train men. The Greeks wanted to
be ready to fund a war instantly.
Athens guarded the treasury. Corinth probably would have been a better choice for many
reasons. First, Corinth was famous for being good with money. They had a bank. They had a
system. And they were not constantly at war with Sparta, as was Athens. Athens and Sparta
simply could not get along.
But Athens did not ask. They took control of the money and guarded the treasury. At first, Sparta
was fine with that. Athens only kept 1/60th of the money to pay for storage and guards and all
the costs that went with guarding the money and reporting to the other city-states. In a pretty
short amount of time, the treasury grew so large that even 1/6oth of it was a lot of money!
Athens grew rich from guarding the treasury.
Sparta grew distrustful. In Sparta's eyes, the Athenians were frivolous, always quoting poetry,
and dancing around playing the lyre, when they should be drilling and preparing to defend
themselves. Was Athens being honest?
To the Athenians, the Spartan were militant fanatics, The Spartans were always drilling instead
of enjoying life. From Athens' point of view, the Spartans had no appreciation of the finer things
in life like art and theatre.
The Peloponnesian War did not start over the treasury or its home. It did not start over anything,
really. One day, Athens and Sparta were having a silly argument over nothing as usual, only this
time, war broke out. The war lasted for 30 years. Finally, Sparta won.
Normally, when Sparta conquered a resisting people, they leveled the town. But the Spartans did
not do that to Athens. They did put a king on the throne of Athens, which ended Athens'
experiment with democracy. 10 years later, Athens was back as a major power. But Athens never
really recovered from the way. She was never the power she once was. About 100 years later, a
new power rose in the Greek world - Macedonia - led by Alexander the Great.
Peloponnesian War Game
http://home.freeuk.net/elloughton13/gcontent.htm