What Is The 27 Year Peloponnesian War

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

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.

During The Peloponnesian War, Sparta was able to dominate Athens and win the war. At the war’s conclusion, Athens was left in complete chaos, and Sparta was also weakened. Athens was politically, economically, and militarily affected, while Sparta was only slightly affected politically and militarily. However, with Sparta’s ignorance towards foreign people, the results of the war were worse than the war itself.

Ancient Athenians were thoughtful people who enjoyed the systematic study of subjects such as science, philosophy, and history. They placed a heavy emphasis on the arts, literature, and architecture. Sparta, another powerful city-state had a very different society than Athens. The city-state of Sparta developed a militaristic society ruled by two kings and an oligarchy, or small group that exercises political control. The devotion of Spartans to developing a military state left little time for the arts or literature. Their differences eventually lead to war between the two city-states. Known as the Peloponnesian War, both Athens and Sparta gathered allies and fought on and off for decades because no single city-state was strong enough to conquer the other. The Athenians were the first to lay aside their weapons, and to adopt an easier and more luxurious mode of life. With war came famine, plague, death, and misfortune. But war cannot kill ideas. Despite the eventual military surrender of Athens, Athenian thought spread throughout the region. After temporary setbacks, these notions only became more widely accepted and developed with the passing

The Greco-Persian War and the Great Peloponnesian War had many similar and different causes; Athens violated treaties and interfered with the economy while offending their adversaries’ politics.

Is war ultimately inevitable? Many may say the answer seems to be a definite yes, but to answer this question, one must evaluate the causes, the history, and the aftermath of war. The Peloponnesian War is an excellent war that can be examined. It was a great war fought by two very powerful Greek city-states, Athens and Sparta. It started on April 25th, 431 B.C. and lasted until 404 B.C., a whole generation. The war caused major destruction and many lives from both sides were lost making Greece never be the same again.

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 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 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.

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 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.

existing wars between each other” (Hdt. VII.145.1) in order to fight against Persia. However, only one Peloponnesian state (Sparta) offered help throughout the wars.

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

The Peloponnesian war lasted from 431 to 404 B.C. and was profoundly influenced by two Athenian men, Pericles and Alcibiades. Though Pericles and Alcibiades were related by blood they were quite different. Pericles was a diplomat, he approached matters with a level head and tried to find a solution that did not end in bloodshed. Alcibiades was less stable, he either fought, manipulated, or ran when confronted with a problem. Both men spoke eloquently enough to move almost the entire city of Athens, using their words to bend people to their will.  What was different between them was what their will was, one cared about the city and its wellbeing, the other cared about his own wellbeing.

The Peloponnesian War was the turning point in Athenian hegemony in Ancient Greece. It was fought in 431 B.C. between the Delian League, led by Athens, and the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta. According to Thucydides, Athens’ imposing hegemonic status and its overwhelming quest for more power made the Peloponnesian War and Athens’s eventual fall from power inevitable. Despite the Athenians having a far more superior navy and being considerably wealthier, they were defeated and made subjects of Sparta. In this paper, I will discuss Thucydides’ and Socrates’ reasons for why