The Great Peloponnesian War

The Peloponnesian War pitted the Athenians against the Spartans. The Peloponnesians’ were an alliance of city-states controlled by Sparta. These two powerful city-states became locked in a struggle for dominance of the eastern Mediterranean area. The roots of the conflict and in particular this expedition is highly complex. As Thucydides says in his history of the war, the underlying cause was Spartan fear of Athens' expansive power. But, the triggering event was Athens' aggressive behavior towards Corinth, an ally of Sparta.

Athens and Sparta were both dominant powers in ancient Greece. However, a legendary rivalry existed between the two. When Athens ended its alliance with Corcyra in 433 B.C. and began to surround Potidaea, it threatened Corinth’s position. Sparta feared that Athens was becoming too powerful and tried to avert war. The Spartans believed that peace was possible if the Athenians would revoke measures against Sparta's ally, Megara. The Athenian leader, Pericles, refused to concur with this because Sparta and Athens had earlier agreed that conflicts would be solved by negotiation. If the Athenians would yield to Sparta's request, they would in fact be accepting Sparta’s orders. This was unacceptable, and as a result, war broke out. Athens and its Delian League were attacked by Sparta and its Peloponnesian League. Diodorus mentions that the Spartans did not just declare war, but sought additional support from Persia.

Throughout the Ancient Greek world, there have been many wars and standoffs. However, there has been only one which changed the course of Greek history forever; the Peloponnesian War. Caused by the growing tension between Athens and Sparta, it came and left, leaving only destruction in its wake. The defeat of Athens in the Peloponnesian War caused the downfall of Greece, and the end of the Classical Age.

The Peloponnesian War between the city-states of Athens and Sparta (and their respective allies) lasted from 431-404 BC. Conflicts between the two cites dated back further, however, with

From 3000 BCE to 1500 CE their has been many events and people who have had an major impact on Western European civilization. The event I think had the most important affect is The Persian and Peloponnesian wars. The Persian war begun because the lonians city-states owed money to Persia and the lonians city-states were conquered by Cyrus II of Persia. The reasons for the Peloponnesian war are the democratic reforms of Cleisthenes but Sparta always denied this and Athenian control of the Delian League. Both of these wars affected Greek history.

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

In 431 B.C., even before the Peloponnesian War, Athens’ strength compared to other Greek polises was evident. Athens had islands, a powerful, a well-trained navy, and one, if not the best, general at the time: Pericles. Pericles says in his speech that, “war is inevitable,” but in fact the war was preventable (72). Even with all of the military strengths and assets that Athenians had afforded to them, they chose to be merciful to the Peloponnesians who were in no shape to go to war. They did not have the experience, money, manpower, or means to participate in a lengthy war and Pericles makes the citizens aware of this (70). Pericles is both modest and humble for choosing to point out these facts which in turn helps the Athenians see the potential

The book The Spartacus War by Barry Strauss is an in depth look at one of Roman history’s most legendary events, the gladiator revolt led by Spartacus. Spartacus has become a legend, creating a storyline that has inspired many movies and television shows, such as Stanley Kubrick’s epic Spartacus in 1960, starring the legendary Kirk Douglas. Spartacus has inspired a perfect mix of men over time with various backgrounds and beliefs, from Stalin and Marx, to Voltaire, and even to Ronald Reagan. How though, did Spartacus create a massive revolt of slaves that would create a massive problem for the mighty Rome? Strauss attempts to create a chronology of the Spartacus War using his vast knowledge of the Italian landscape, ancient documents, and

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.

The Peloponnesian War was an ancient Greek war fought between Athens and Sparta’s Peloponnesian League. The Peloponnesian War had many causes which included anti-Athenian feelings by the Peloponnesian League and competitive feelings for power. It began when Athens started to dominate and treat other members of the delian league like subjects. This in turn caused Sparta to refuse to join the delian league so he created a rival league which was the Peloponnesian League.

Thucydides gives his reasoning of the cause of the Peloponnesian War. “The real though unavowed cause I believe to have been the growth of the Athenian power, which terrified the Lacedaemonians and forced them into war; but the reasons publicly alleged on either side were as follows.” (Zagorin 40). Thucydides will then go into the grievances, which will lead to the war. He looks at four main episodes, but will give more attention and thought to the first two grievances dealing with Corcyra and Potidaea. The next two deal with the concerns from Aegina and Megara.

The Peloponnesian war (431–404 BC) was an ancient Greek war fought by Athens against the Peloponnesian led by Sparta. Thucydides famously claims that the war started “because the Spartans were afraid of further growth of Athenian power, seeing as they did have the greater part of Hellas was under the control of Athens”. The two main protagonists from opposing sides Lysander and Alcibiades had the most influential impact on the end of the war.

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

This essay examines the evolution of the Athens strategy from the beginning to the end of The Peloponnesian War (431 to 404 BCE). The Strategy will be evaluated in the context of the relationship of ends, means, and ways by testing the suitability, acceptability, feasibility, and risk.

The “The History of the Peloponnesian War” authored by Thucydides in 431 B.C.E and translated by Richard Crawley expressively illustrates the plague of Athens and its impact on the population. The work provides a vivid account as to the amount of suffering and disorder consuming the Athenians during the second year of the Peloponnesian war. Furthermore, Thucydides wrote the piece in hopes of broadening the scope of current events at the time which affected the citizens. Additionally, he sought to inform future generations of the plague so that they could recognize it or conduct further studies should it make an appearance again. From this translation, Thucydides demonstrates a notable interest and most importantly provides sufficient detail in presenting the symptoms he observed or experienced himself through this plague. However, while the detailed account appears thorough at a first glance, I would consider this a subjective and an inadequate testimony of the Athens plague with some loose ends.