Peloponnesian War Causes

Thucydides is the author of Peloponnesian War. The Peloponnesian War was a direct and indirect conflict between Sparta and Athens that lasted from 460-404 BCE. Thucydides fought for Athens during the Peloponnesian War and was later exiled by Athens. Thucydides was writing about something that he participated in and the Peloponnesian War became the first contemporary history. Thucydides also made use of eyewitness reports from people who were participants in the war.

Being alive to witness the events that occurred in and around fifth century B. C. E. Greece meant that Thucydides could not help but write down his experiences. The Athenians of Greece and the people of the Persian Empire were constantly at odds with each other, and these differences eventually led to the Peloponnesian war. This war lasted from 431-404 B.C.E. and began an era of conflict between the two peoples (Bulliet). This power struggle not only inflated the ego of the Athenians, but created many negative viewpoints of the Persians. Thucydides, being an Athenian, was therefore extremely biased against the Persians.

In 449 BC Persia negotiated a peace treaty with Athens thus ending the war The Ex tyrant of Greece, Hippias, was a major part of the attack on Marathon. Darius first sent his fleet to Eretria to punish them for their role in the Ionian revolt and to start his conquest of Greece. After they destroyed Eretria they moved on to Marathon and then their plan was to take over Athens but, they were stopped at Marathon.

Although Pericles’ words strived to inspire and encourage the Athenian people to fight valiantly against Sparta and its allies, they are not enough to embolden the Athenian people onto victory in the Peloponnesian War. His words do motivate Athenians to make tremendous effort in extending their power and defeating Sparta and its allies, but in the end, may have lead to Athenians’ demise. Fostering pride and determination throughout the war, Athens makes several attempts to expand its naval power, but fails in its plan to overtake Syracuse on the coast of Sicily, weakening its efforts against Sparta and its allied city-states. Finally, in the naval battle at Aegospotami, the Spartans have a decisive victory over Athens, and the Athenians eventually surrender, ending the Peloponnesian War.

A war against Sparta began during this time, which was caused by the poor decisions made by the current general. At some point Sicily invaded Athens, followed by a change in democracy to a more oligarchy system of government. Athens was fighting for their government and changes were being made over and over, power was being put on different people and becoming overrun. But finally, in 338 B.C., Athens was taken by Mecedonia. This drastic end in democracy came after Athens lost the battle of Chaeronea.

The Hellenistic time period began at the end of the Classical Era; it covers Mediterranean History between the death of Alexander The Great in 323 B.C. and the emerging of the Roman Empire in 31 B.C. The term Hellenistic was used to create a distinct difference from the classical Hellenic period, which came before the Hellenistic period. In the beginning, the city states were weak, disorganized, and their religions/cultures changed vastly due to many years of warfare. Although it seemed that Alexander The Great had immediately changed the empire in many ways, it was not all it seemed. Alexander's empire was rather fragile it was not intended to last very long, perhaps only the length of his life.

The Athenians were now able to project their new strategy with the Spartans as Sparta requested peace and the return of their soldiers. Encouraged by Cleon, the Athenians rejected the peace offering from Sparta “grasping at something further.” Athenians demanded the return of four cities to Athens. The Spartans response was slow to the Athenians request and “Cleon violently assailed” the envoys. Based off what transpired, the envoys decided whatever they offered would not be good enough for the Athenians, causing the Spartans to

The Peloponnesian War was fought from 431-404 BCE in ancient Greece by the two most powerful city-states, Athens and Sparta. Military commander and politician, Alcibiades, son of Clinias, was well-born and wealthy. He was, on one hand, the most handsome, a great orator, patient, hard-working, skilled, and generous man; however, he was lustful, of bad moral character, and easily angered (Nepos, Alcibiades, (Albert Fleckeisen, 1886), chapter 1). During the Peloponnesian War, Alcibiades led the Athenians, but once he was convicted of defacing the Hermae, he fled to Sparta out of fear of death, betraying Athens. Once at Sparta, he helped the Spartans lead in the war; however, eventually, the Spartans feared that Alcibiades would soon betray them

Athens, had many challenges, both geographically and alliance wise. The Athenians were advised to appease all feuds within its neighboring polis. Greece was needed to unite under one cause, and that could not be done while the polis in Greece were at war.

Melians didn’t want to go to war but would not back down on their beliefs. Both states recognized that if the coercing continued there was a chance all neutral states would become enemies based on the fear that the Athens would someday come for their colonies as well. Contradicting the comfort it

As we had read in the assignment titled ‘Boundless World History’, “Democracy in Athens was overthrown in 411 BCE because of its poor handling of the Peloponnesian War.” Athens and Sparta had engaged in the Peloponnesian War that was between 404 and 431 BCE. In ancient Greece, Athens and Sparta were two of the most important city-states. According to most historians, the Peloponnesian War battle, which was supposed to have almost consumed the entire Greek world, was the most important battle of its time. Since Sparta won and Athens ultimately lost the Peloponnesian War, it can be stated that Athens was unable to accomplish the Peloponnesian War successfully.

In the opening year of the Peloponnesian War, 431 B.C.E., Pericles delivered, and according to Plato may not have written, a speech praising Athenian democracy while also remembering all the Soldiers that had died in the service of Athens. He took the opportunity to reinforce the Athenian constitution and to let people know that the deaths of their Soldiers was justified to uphold the democracy. Pericles cites that when Athens goes to war it goes alone. He goes onto to say that when other countries go to war against Athens that they must bring their “confederates” (Funeral Oration of Pericles) with them if they are to stand a chance at victory.

The historian Thucydides described himself as a wealthy Athenian general whose exile to the Peloponnese allowed him to personally observe, from both the sides of the conflict, a comprehensive account of the Peloponnesian War. Book 1 in Thucydides’ “History of the Peloponnesian War” is dedicated to explaining over fifty years of the events and proceedings that led to the abandonment of the Thirty Year’s Peace and subsequent war. In Book 1 he identifies four main incidents, which I shall refer to as ‘grievances’, regarding the conduct of Athens towards both their Delian members and the Peloponnesian allies. Yet he also mentions what he deems to be a more ‘real’ truth than these four grievances that led to Sparta and the Peloponnese going to

Athens organized a group of Greek city states into the Delian League and eventually lead and dominated all of the city states in the League. Athens’s military prowess allowed them to look down on the other members of the League and treat them as members of an empire instead of equals. This caused some to view them with hostility which sparked the conflicts between Athens and Sparta that lead to the Peloponnesian War. The direct democracy of Athens wasn’t actually as inclusive and steady as the statement at Pericles 's funeral state, “Our Constitution is called a democracy because power is in the hands not of a minority but of the whole people (Doc C).” In fact, of the 450,000 citizens of Athens in 430 BC, only about 40,000 people had the power to vote.

A great war fought between Greece and Troy. It all started when the Odyssey had an idea of the Trojans hiding in the the giant horse that was sent to Greece, the guards of Greece stood around making sure nothing would happen, they stood for so long they all went to sleep. Once the Trojans didn’t hear anything they all came out quietly. But somehow the guards were alerted. Unfortunately they tried to bribe paris, helen has caught his eye and he stole helen away from Sparta.