ATHENS VS SPARTA

WHAT ENCOUNTERS BETWEEN THE TWO CITY-STATES LED TO THE WAR AND HOW DID IT

IMPACTED CURRENT-DAY GREECE?

STEPHANIE NDUKWE
 As at 498 B.C, many years ago, all of Greece was broken into multiple city-states.

Although they differed from each other as they should, there were 2 city-states who differed

from each other to the point of them being near-polar opposites. Those two city states were

Sparta and Athens. Athens was a place with a democratic government. They placed a very heavy

emphasis on the arts, architecture, and literature. Their women were treated as slaves and had no

rights. In Sparta, however, was a place with 2 kings and an oligarchy. 1They placed a heavy

emphasis not on the arts but on military power. Women in Sparta were treated just as the men

were. Except for the right to vote, all the women had the same rights as the men. They went to

school, trained for the military, and went to war just as other did. Due to their very different

beliefs/governments and due to the many negative encounters and exchanges during the period

of Thirty Years Peace, the Peloponnesian War was ignited and as a result of this war, there was

much distrust between all of the Greek city-states for a long time.2

It was 448 B.C. and many of the city-states were weak and recovering from the many

damages inflicted upon them during the very brutal Persian War. Athens, is particular, was

devastated after being burned down. In an attempt to fully recover from the wrath dropped upon

them, they began to build everything they once had, including their walls. These walls were not

just a defense. They were a long path connecting them to their two trading ports, Piraeus and

Phalerum. 3When they began attempting to rebuild the walls, Sparta took notice of their increase

1 "Spartans: Implements of Death Video." History.com. Accessed December 6, 2015.

http://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/peloponnesian-war/videos/spartans-implements-of-death?
m=528e394da93ae&s=undefined&f=1&free=false.

2 Ibid.

3Donald Lateiner. The Histories. New York, NY: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2004.
in power and out of fear/jealousy, they began to discourage the Athenians, trying to convince

them not to continue the reconstruction of the long walls. They tried their hardest to stop them

from continuing but the Athenian leader, Themistocles, stalled their decision long enough for the

walls to come close to complete. By then, the Spartans could do nothing of the matter. Tension

between the two city-states had officially began to form as the people of Athens continued to fix

their town. 4

30 years later, Athens had now fully recovered and were fully operational again.

Although they had recovered and were strong again, they still had the fear that the Persians

would return. They werent the only ones, though. Many other city-states were thinking the same

exact thing. They thought that it was almost impossible for the Persians not to come back and

attempt to take over Greece so, to be safe, they made extra precautions. They formed an offense-

centered alliance that they named the Delian League. When making this league, they initially

asked Sparta to be their leader due to the military reputation that Sparta upheld but since Sparta

refused to take part in anything relating to the League and Athens had the largest navy in all of

Greece, Athens was made their leader instead. As time went on, the Delian League slowly began

to recruit many other city-states to be part of their league. This caused them to grow not only in

number but also in strength.5

With the launch of the Delian League, Athens began demanding for every city-state under

the League to build ships for the use of their navy. Some of the city-states in the League,

however, were too small to make such large ships for Athens so they decided to compensate for

4 Donald Lateiner. The Histories. New York, NY: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2004.

5 Lateiner, Donald. The History of the Peloponnesian War. New York, NY: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2006.
the ships with money. This started off as a very small happening in which a city-state or two

would bring them money in place of ships but soon enough, the Athenians began to abuse their

newfound power. 6The would go out into the city-states in the league and demand for them to

give them money. City-states, Naxos and Thasos once felt secure enough to try and pull out of

the league but when they attempted to, Athens tried to convince them to stay. At first, it was to no

avail but when Naxos and Thasos came to realize that the Athenian Navy was the only defense

they had against any potential threats, they quickly came crawling back to the League. When

Athens took notice of the influence they had on the entire League, not only by being their leader

but also by having the strongest form of defense in the entire League, they decided to abuse their

position even more. They started to force city-states to adopt a democratic government. They

even went through the liberty of walking everyone in the League through the process of

becoming democratic. Finally, they began sending soldiers to areas that they thought were going

to rebel against them or perform an act of treason. They also made all of the city-states under the

Delian League to begin using their form of currency and their currency only. Any other form of

currency was not allowed to be used in any type of trade or transaction. 7

While all of this was happening, Sparta was watching. They initially thought that nothing

much could be made of the league but as they watched, they noticed that the Delian League was

becoming, not a league, but an empire; an Athenian empire. As they saw the empire grow by the

day and they saw Athens power and authority increase, they decided to take action. They formed

6 Lateiner, Donald. The History of the Peloponnesian War. New York, NY: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2006.

7 "The Flow of History." FC23: The Delian League and the Athenian Empire (478-431 BCE). Accessed December
11, 2015. Web
a coalition to stop the Athenian expansion. Pericles, one of the kings of Sparta, decided that

together, with Persia, they were going to attack Athens to put them into a position in which they

were somewhat under control. Their tactic worked for a while and there was peace throughout all

of Greece. A treaty known as the Thirty Years Peace treaty was signed. Athens caused no trouble

in the League, no city-state instigated trouble with another city-state, and for a few years, no

tension was felt.8

The peace, although thoroughly enjoyed, was short lived. Soon into the thirty years,

Corcyra, a city-state, sought an alliance with Athens. After debating and getting input from many

people, they decided to go through with the alliance. One day, a fleet of Corinthian ships tried to

capture Corcyra in the Battle of Sybota. A small fleet of Athenian ships were sent out to defend

Corcyra and after seeing the Athenian ships, the Corinthians gave up on their exploit and

returned to their land. However, in order to uphold the Thirty Years' Peace, the Athenians were

told not to intervene in the battle unless it was clear that Corinth was going to violently invade

Corcyra. The Athenian ships took part in the battle anyways, and the arrival of Athenian ships

was more than enough to stop the Corinthians from continuing their attack. After this, Athens

ordered Potidaea, an ally of Athens but a colony of Corinth, to tear down its walls, send its

people to Athens, dismiss the Corinthian leaders from office, and refuse anyone and anything

that the city would send in the future. The Corinthians, angered by this, urged Potidaea to revolt

and reassured them that they would ally with them. At the same time, the Corinthians were

already helping Potidaea by sneaking men into the city to help defend it. This was a direct

violation of the Thirty Years' Peace treaty. Eventually, at the request of the Corinthians, the

Spartans called the members of the Peloponnesian League to Sparta, especially the people who

8 Lateiner, Donald. The History of the Peloponnesian War. New York, NY: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2006.
had complaints to make against Athens, to make their voices heard to the Spartan assembly. The

Athenian leaders also attended this meeting, uninvited. 9This meeting soon turned into a heated

debate but, at the end of the debate, the Spartan assembly came to the conclusion that the

Athenians had broken the peace treaty and that war was to be declared.

When Sparta formed alliances with the other city-states, such as Thebes and Corinth, in

order to quell the Athenians, those alliances ended up sticking around even during the

Peloponnesian War. At the start of the war, Sparta already had an able bodied army, ready to fight

the Athenians. The Athenians used their league-turned-empire as their soldiers. As the native

Athenians used their amazing Navy to fight, they had the city-states in the League fight

alongside them.10

The war was fought in two phases: The Archidamian War and the Decelean or Ionian

War. The entire war, as a whole, lasted 25 years. The first phase was known as the Archidamian

War. During the Archidamian War, the Spartans chose to invade all of the areas that were around

Athens. The strategy took away the Athenian access to things outside of their city, but since they

were still able to reach the sea, they had no issues. The Spartans also occupied Attica for short

periods of time, the longest time-period being forty days. At first, the Athenians were being led

by Pericles, one of their military generals. He advised Athenians to avoid battle with the Spartans

since they were better trained. The Athenian fleet later went on the offensive, winning a victory

at Naupactus. However, in 430 B.C, a serious illness hit Athens, killing many of its people. The

plague killed over 30,000 citizens, sailors and soldiers, including Pericles. Athens, having lost

9 Ibid.

10 Lateiner, Donald. The History of the Peloponnesian War. New York, NY: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2006.
many people, did not have very many people to fight for them anymore and other city-states

refused to send them any help because they didnt want to get the same plague that the Athenians

were suffering from.11 The fear of the plague was so great that the Spartans abandoned their old

strategy, not wanting their troops make contact with the disease. After the death of Pericles, the

Athenians began to take offense, abandoning their prior decision of taking the defensive side.

Many battles took place and soon enough, after the Battle of Amphipolis, Sparta and Athens

came to a truce.

In-between the two phases, there was a quick battle, which the Athenians lost. When the

Athenians were defeated in this battle, many began to think that the end of the Athenian Empire

was at hand. Finally, the second and last phase came around: The Decelean or Ionian War. After

the Battle of Sicilia, Sparta and their allies began encouraging the Athenian allies to revolt and

after much convincing, they all did. The Syracusans sent their fleet to Sparta, and the Persians

decided to support the Spartans with money and ships. The Athenians managed to survive for

several reasons. First of all, Corinth and Syracuse were slow to bring their ships to the

battlefront, and Sparta's other allies were also very slow to bring troops and ships. Secondly,

many of the Ionian states that rebelled rejoined the Athenian side. Lastly, the Persians were too

slow to provide Sparta with promised funds and ships, frustrating their battle plans. The Athenian

back-up ships were released, and they served as the core of the Athenians' Navy throughout the

rest of the war. 12

11 Lateiner, Donald. The History of the Peloponnesian War. New York, NY: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2006.

12 Ibid.
 A revolution occurred in Athens, in which a group of 400 people took power. While peace

with Sparta might have still been possible, the Athenian Navy, refused to accept the change. In

411 BC, the fleet fought with the Spartans in the Battle of Syme. The fleet was given to

Alcibiades, their disloyal leader, and the war continued in Athens' favor. This led to the return of

Athens democratic government.13 Alcibiades, even though he was once considered a traitor,

helped restore the Athenian democracy. He also convinced the Athenian Navy to attack the

Spartans during the Battle of Cyzicus. In the battle, the Athenians defeated the Spartans. After

this, the Athenians has a constant streak of victory throughout the war. Then, Athens won in the

Battle of Arginusae. The Spartan navy lost 70 ships but the Athenians only lost 25 ships.

However, due to bad weather, the Athenians werent able to rescue their stuck crews. These

failures caused anger in Athens and led to a trial. The trial resulted in the execution of six of

Athens top naval commanders. Seizing their opportunity, the Spartan fleet sailed at once to the

Hellespont, the source of Athens' grain. Threatened with starvation, the Athenian fleet had no

choice but to follow. Facing starvation and disease from the prolonged siege, Athens surrendered

in 404 BC, and its allies soon surrendered as well.14

All Greek city-states were weakened by the war. After this war, which many of the still-

recovering city-states took part in, many of these city-states were devastated. The economy was

terrible, they were in serious debt, and they all had very many casualties, so many people were

13 Brownson, Carleton Lewis. Hellenica. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1918.

14 Ibid.
lost. The war made it difficult for the Greeks to trust each other and made future unification

nearly impossible.15

In conclusion, Athens and Sparta went to war due to the negative encounters that they had

during their times of peace and also, because of the drastic differences between the two city-

states.

This is a picture of Athens after they rebuilt their walls and were gradually building their empire

under the name of The Delian League. They had a long wall that was from the city to their most

active port in Piraeus. These walls, destroyed by the Persians, were not approved of by the

Spartans but the Athenians stalled the Spartans long enough to complete building it.

15 Ibid.
This is a map showing the war and what journeys were made to places when fighting. It also

shows the city-states that were allied with Sparta and the ones allied with Athens. Lastly, it

shows the Athenian and Spartan victories, both indicated by different colors.
 Annotated Bibliography

Primary Sources

Brownson, Carleton Lewis. Hellenica. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press,

1918.
This book by Xenophon was very helpful. The book by Thucydides did not cover the final years
of the Peloponnesian War so, Xenophon covered the final years. It gave me a lot of insight on
how the war ended.

Lateiner, Donald. The Histories. New York, NY: Barnes & Noble Classics, 2004.
This book gave me an understanding of what happened before the Peloponnesian War. In this
book, Herodotus tells of the Greco-Persian War and how it went on until the end.

Lateiner, Donald. The History of the Peloponnesian War. New York, NY: Barnes & Noble
Classics, 2006.
This book by Thucydides was where I got most of my research. It is a primary source that
discussed the on-goings of the Peloponnesian War in a very detailed manner. It was not biased
much and gave me a lot of information needed to write this essay.

Secondary Sources

"Lesson 3: What Effect Did the Peloponnesian War Have on the Athenian Empire?" - KNILT.
 Accessed December 10, 2015.
http://tccl.rit.albany.edu/knilt/index.php/Lesson_3:_What_effect_did_the_Peloponnesian
_War_have_on_the_Athenian_Empire?
This website had very basic bullet points on the on-goings of the Peloponnesian War. Although it
did not help much with research, it gave me an idea of what to keep a special eye out for when
researching.

"Spartans: Implements of Death Video." History.com. Accessed December 6, 2015.

http://www.history.com/topics/ancient-history/peloponnesian-war/videos/spartans-
implements-of-death?m=528e394da93ae&s=undefined&f=1&free=false.
This video really helped me understand the basics of Spartan living and some of the basic
interactions during the Peloponnesian War.

"The Flow of History." FC23: The Delian League and the Athenian Empire (478-431 BCE).
Accessed December 11, 2015. http://flowofhistory.com/units/birth/3/FC23.
This website helped me to get a deeper understanding of the Delian League. It helped me to
understand the little details about its formation that were not mentioned in the primary sources.