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Peloponnesian War Essay

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The Peloponnesian War was a 27 yearlong war fought between Athens and Sparta. Both Athens and Sparta were leaders of their own leagues, Athens and the Delian League and Sparta with the Peloponnesian League. War broke out after Athens failed to adhere to the 30 years treaty, plus ever since its growing size and economic wealth Athens had been acting more like a bully and less like a civilized city-state but anger amongst Sparta and Athens allies only made war more inevitable. Thucydides, who served as a general in the Peloponnesian war stated in his recount of the war, “ The growth and the power of Athens, and the alarm which this inspired in Sparta, made war inevitable.” Once war had officially begun Pericles, the Athenian leader, suggested …show more content…

Although not much different from the Greek themselves, they stilled viewed and considered them semi-barbaric and backwards by Greek standards. The Macedonians were a distinct race but their only difference from the Greeks was how far behind they were in regards to civilization. Some proof to their differences or the way the Greeks viewed the Macedonians starts with their king. The king of Macedonia Phillip II, who reigned from 359-336BCE, was somewhat obsessed with the Greeks and their way of life. He thought the Greeks were the best people in the world and truly loved all things Greek. He married a Greek woman, had a son and did whatever he needed to do in order for him to compete against the Greeks in the Olympics. But although Phillip greatly admired them, he did not hesitate to conquer their land. I feel as though the Hellenistic empire fits with the overall history of the Greek people because of the great fall of Greece to Phillip and Macedonia. Phillip took advantage of Greece once they became exhausted of resources and money after the Peloponnesian War and because of this the Hellenistic empire should be more correctly called the Macedonian empire. Macedonian was able to conquer many areas under Greek rule such as Thessaly and many others. After this, Phillip

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