Causes Of Athens In The Great Peloponnesian War

If Sparta really was willing to attack Athens, an 'apparent' ally, then their relationship must have been weak and forced. Was Sparta jealous of Athens' wealth and power? Did they feel threatened by the Athenians sudden harshness against their own 'allies'? Or it could have been a combination of reasons. Thucydides didn't help either when his pro-Athenian feelings got the better of him, 'this was a time when Sparta was particularly friendly to Athens because of the courage displayed by Athens against the Persians.'

Good morning/afternoon students. Today I am going to be talking about the Peloponnesian war and why it was inevitable.

During the following years, the Athenians decided to take the offensive by attacking the city of Syracuse. They campaigned all throughout western Greece and even the Peloponnese. By 425 B.C., it wasn’t looking good for Sparta and they wanted to bring about peace. They soon, however, gained victory of Chalcidice and Athens were encouraged to revolt, but in a battle at Amphipolis in 422 B.C., two major leaders of Sparta and Athens were killed and Athenians were persuaded to accept Sparta’s peace

The Peloponnesian War started on April 25, 431 BC and it started because Sparta called on the other greeks to help to quell a helot uprising so Athens sent 4000 soldiers but Sparta rejected. The Athens felt offended and they stopped alliance with Sparta. So in 433 BC Athens placed a ban on trade but Athens high taxes caused a weakening of the Delian League. So Sparta declared war to stop the taxes.

Sparta for fear of Athens did not want to go to war, as Kagan says here “Shows how reluctant the Spartans still were to fight in the summer of 432 B.C.”. Sparta did not want to go to war but still kept pushing Athens closer to it, by threatening them, not accepting their offer help, and avoiding them. Athens tried some schemes to spy on Sparta, but they did not work as they got no information. Sparta then tried many times at peace as Kagan says “Sparta had cornered the Corinthians and were prepared to attack them if they tried succession under their rule”. Sparta offered to destroy them because they were the enemy of the Athenians. Athens eventually denied this for fear of trickery, and a little while later, Athens declared war on them from fear of Sparta’s repetitive threats on them.

What a society considers fighting, and dying, for says a lot about that society. Homer’s The Iliad, and Thucydides’ The History of the Peloponnesian War are both centered on some of the largest wars that their authors knew about. In the case of The Iliad, this war started when Paris offended the honor of the Spartan king, Menelaus, by taking Helen, the king’s wife. This is just an example of the culture of the times because, right from the start, the Greeks of Homer fight for their honor. Thucydides lived during the Peloponnesian War, hundreds of years after Homer. During those hundreds of years, war itself had fundamentally changed. In The History of the Peloponnesian War, honor was still important, but the war’s main purpose was much more tangible. The main cause of the Peloponnesian War was Athens’ desire for more land, more tribute states, and, most importantly, more power. Both of the works deal largely with why the people in them think the wars are worth fighting. In the case of The Iliad, the battles, both for the states and the people fighting, are fought for honor, while in The History of the Peloponnesian War, Athens fights for the power of her empire.

Thucydides set out to narrate the events of what he believed would be a great war—one requiring great power amassed on both sides and great states to carry out. Greatness, for Thucydides, was measured most fundamentally in capital and military strength, but his history delves into almost every aspect of the war, including, quite prominently, its leaders. In Athens especially, leadership was vital to the war effort because the city’s leaders were chosen by its people and thus, both shaped Athens and reflected its character during their lifetimes. The leaders themselves, however, are vastly different in their abilities and their effects on the city. Thucydides featured both

There have been many reasons and debates on what was the true cause of the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides describes the main reason for war somewhat accurately “The real cause... The growth of the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Lacedaemon, made war inevitable.” (Thucydides I.1.23). But, it was not Sparta that was “alarmed” but Corinth. The status quo of Greece was interrupted by Athens’ rise to power. As a result, Sparta was pressured by many minor Greek city states to restore the status quo. However, Sparta was still reluctant to go to war but, Corinth provided a catalyst to take all of that pressure and convince Sparta to declare war on Athens. Ultimately, it was Corinth that started the Peloponnesian War.

They need to do something otherwise Athens would of kept growing in power. Athens then had no choice but to go to war with Sparta. The strategy Athens used was suggested by Pericles a very famous Athenian philosopher, his strategy was to use the long walls that the city of Athens to stay protected from the Spartan army and use their navy because its was much better than the Spartans.

of events which I am going to look at to see if there was a single

Sparta and Athens may have been two big parts of Greece but they did not get along, this lead to them fighting for years and years over small differences. Which brings me to my next point, Greece was highly militarized. What I mean by that is that they will solve everything

Democracy is the ancient form of government our great nation built its foundation on. This inspiration came from the ancient Greeks, especially Athenians, who established the beginnings of democracy thousands of years ago. However, not everyone in Greece agreed upon what this “people led” political system should look like. The Peloponnesian War broke out in 431 B.C.E which was essentially a civil war between the Greece city-states of Athens and Sparta. Blood was spilt and lives shed for the principles of government these two very different cities represented.

Athenian initial strategy objective (end) was raid Peloponnesian coat and exhaustion Sparta. They were planning exercised military leverage navy to maintain empire protect own people behind walls, diplomacy was demand clients the support, maintain impair form new alliances (Macedonia), before war economic was monopole fleet and saved money in bank, increase taxation. The king of Athens Pericles knew that Sparta had superior land forces, even so, the city walls provided appropriate defense counter to attacking forces. He also stated that Athens had the strong navy in the region, attainment of resources might be obtained by maritime network, huge financial reserves, and a large and young populations. These resources were the means in the Athenian war, may have taken success of the strategic goals.

Sparta’s strategy spread risk among its allies, resulting in a positive cost to benefit ratio. In contrast, Athens was incorrect in its initial assessment of Sparta’s capability to become a significant threat and that assessment appeared to changed little leading up to the Sicilian expedition. Further, Athens risked and lost a significant percentage of its own resources on the Sicilian expedition rather than spreading the risk across allies as in the Spartan strategy. It is impossible to know if Sparta’s initial vision remained present in its strategic planning throughout the war. It is likewise impossible to know whether or not Athens’ initial assumptions regarding Sparta’s future capabilities influenced its future strategic evolution. However, by the end of the Sicilian expedition, Sparta’s strategy proved sustainable and effective in adapting to changes in the realities, risks, and length of the

There once was a fight on Mount. Olympus which was usual. This time around it was big and affecting the greek city of Athens and Sparta who worshiped the Gods on a daily basis. The Greeks thought they would have no more hope in the Gods they were destroying their beloved cities. Zeus the king of the Gods had a lighting storm every night which caused fires. The Greeks had to do something before Zeus burnt down their city but what could they do?