Peloponnesian War

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Peloponnesian War , 431–404 BC, decisive struggle in ancient Greece between Athens and Sparta . It ruined Athens, at least for a time. The rivalry between Athens' maritime domain and Sparta's land empire was of long standing. Athens under Pericles (from 445 BC) had become a bastion of Greek democracy, with a foreign policy of regularly intervening to help local democrats. The Spartans, who favored oligarchies like their own, resented and feared the imperialism and cultural ascendancy of Athens.

The war began after sharp contests between Athens and Corinth over Corcyra (now Kérkira ; 433) and Potidaea (432). The first important action was the initial invasion of Attica by a Spartan army in 431. Pericles brought the rural population within the walls, and the Athenian fleet began raids, winning victories off Naupactus (now Návpaktos). Meanwhile a plague (perhaps bubonic) wiped out (430–428) probably a quarter of the population of Athens, and Pericles died. His successor, Cleon , won a great victory at Sphacteria (now Sfaktiriá) and refused a Spartan bid for peace.

The Spartan leader Brasidas now brilliantly surprised Athens with a campaign in NE Greece, taking (424) Athenian cities, including Olynthus and Amphipolis. Fighting went on over these even after an armistice (423) and ended in a decisive Spartan victory at Amphipolis, in which Brasidas and Cleon were both killed (422). The new Athenian leader, Nicias , arranged a peace (421), but his rival Alcibiades persuaded the Athenians to invade powerful Syracuse . In the greatest expeditionary force a Greek city had ever assembled, Alcibiades and Nicias both had (415) commands, but before the attack on Syracuse had begun, Alcibiades was recalled to Athens to face a charge of sacrilege. He fled to Sparta; at his advice the Spartans set up a permanent base at Decelea in Attica and sent a military expert, Gylippus, to Syracuse. The incompetent Nicias lost his chance to surprise Syracuse, and after two years his force was wiped out (413).

Soon Persia was financing a Spartan fleet. Alcibiades sailed it across the Aegean, and there was (412) a general revolt of Athenian dependencies. At Athens the Four Hundred, an oligarchic council, managed (411) a short-lived coup, and Alcibiades, who had quit the Spartans, received (410) an Athenian command. He destroyed the Spartan fleet at Cyzicus (410). The new Spartan admiral, Lysander , built (407) a fleet with Persian aid and won a naval battle off Notium, and Alcibiades was driven from Athens. The Athenians won one more victory at Arginusae, near Lesbos, in 406 and again declined an offer of peace.

The next year Lysander wiped out the Athenian navy (at Aegospotamos , 405) and then besieged Athens, which capitulated in 404. Lysander installed an oligarchic government (the Thirty Tyrants) at Athens, which never regained its former importance. For about 30 years afterward Sparta was the main power in Greece.

Bibliography: The primary source for the Peloponnesian War (to 411) is Thucydides; Xenophon's Hellenica is an inferior sequel. See also G. E. M. de Ste. Croix, The Origins of the Peloponnesian War (1972); D. Kagan, The Peloponnesian War (2003): V. D. Hanson, A War like No Other (2005).

Peloponnesian War The war waged between Athens and Sparta and their respective allies between 431 and 404 BC. Sparta invaded Attica with its allies in 431, but PERICLES had persuaded the Athenians to withdraw behind the ‘long walls’, which linked Athens and its port of Piraeus, and avoid a land-battle with Sparta's superior army. Athens relied on its fleet of TRIREMES to raid the Peloponnese and guard its empire and trade-routes. It was struck a serious blow by an outbreak of plague in 430, which killed about a third of the population, including Pericles. Nevertheless the fleet performed well and a year's truce was made in 423 BC.

The Peace of Nicias was concluded in 421 BC, but Alcibiades orchestrated opposition to Sparta in the Peloponnese, though his hopes were dashed when Sparta won a victory at Mantinea in 418. He was also the main advocate of an expedition to Sicily (415–413), aimed at defeating Syracuse, that ended in complete disaster for Athens. War was formally resumed in 413 BC. Athenian fortunes revived, with naval victories at Cynossema (411), Cyzicus (410), and the recapture of Byzantium (408). There was a further victory at Arginusae in 406. From then on, Persian financial support for Sparta and the strategic and tactical skills of the Spartan LYSANDER tilted the balance. Sparta's victory at Aegospotami and its control of the Hellespont starved Athens into surrender in April 404. An oligarchic coup followed immediately, supported by Sparta, and the reign of terror of the ‘Thirty Tyrants’, but democracy was restored in 403.

Peloponnesian War (431–404 bc) Conflict in ancient Greece between Athens and Sparta. The underlying cause was Sparta's fear of Athenian hegemony. Athenian hostility towards Corinth, Sparta's chief ally, provoked the Spartan declaration of war. Having a stronger army, Sparta regularly invaded Attica, while Athens, under Pericles, avoided land battles and relied on its navy. The early stages were inconclusive. The Peace of Nicias (420 bc) proved temporary. In 415 bc, Athens launched a disastrous attack on Syracuse, which encouraged Sparta to renew the war. With Persian help, Sparta built up a navy which, under Lysander, defeated Athens in 405 bc. Besieged and blockaded, Athens surrendered.

http://mit.edu/Thucydides/pelopwar.html

Peloponnesian War the war of 431–404 bc fought between Athens and Sparta with their respective allies, occasioned largely by Spartan opposition to the Delian League. It ended in the total defeat of Athens and the transfer, for a brief period, of the leadership of Greece to Sparta.