The Peloponnesian War: History, Cause & Result, Quiz & Worksheet - Prelude to the Peloponnesian War, Over 83,000 lessons in all major subjects, {{courseNav.course.mDynamicIntFields.lessonCount}}, Ancient Greek Tyrant: Definition & Overview, Tyrants of Ancient Greece: Contributions, Impact & Examples, The Delian League of Ancient Greece: Definition & Overview, The Sicilian Expedition: Facts & Significance, The Greco-Persian Wars: Causes, Effects & Events, HSC Ancient History: Exam Prep & Syllabus, Biological and Biomedical The Peloponnesian War was one of the greatest conflicts in Greek history, but how did it actually start? However, the war didn't start in either Athens or Sparta. The Corinthians also had ancestral ties to Epidamnus, but more importantly, were squabbling with Corcyra. study Be on the lookout for your Britannica newsletter to get trusted stories delivered right to your inbox. just create an account. This was potentially a problem since Corinth was the most important ally of Sparta. The Peloponnesian War that Thucydides’ historical accuracy is now being more consistently and acutely challenged than ever before, in part by scholars who believe that artistic intentions dominated Thucydides’ version of events, 2 also lead-ing him to magnify the importance of his topic unduly, 3 One revealing reason for the failure of the big colony at Heraclea founded in 426, a project with a strongly anti-Ionian and propagandist element, was the harsh and positively unjust behaviour of the Spartan governors, who frightened people away. Fearing that Corinth would try to attack Corcyra directly, Athenian ships entered the fight. According to Thucydides, over 200 ships were involved in this battle, making it the largest maritime encounter up to that point in Greek history. Athens' victory convinced Sparta that Athens was not respecting their neutrality treaty and was expanding an empire over Greece, so in 431 BCE they declared war. Gravity. Persia was a possible source for both, but assistance from Persia might compromise Spartan “liberation theology.” This was especially true if Sparta set foot in Anatolia, where there were Greeks with as much desire for liberation (whether from Athens or Persia or both: some communities paid tribute in both directions) as their mainland counterparts. This was disconcertingly close to another outpost of Corinthian influence at Potidaea in the Chalcidice, and there is a possibility that Athens subjected Potidaea itself to financial pressure by the mid-430s. Even after that, in the poorly documented 430s (before Aristophanes and Thucydides provide information about individual figures of second- or third-rate significance), there are suggestions of tension, such as a partial ban on comedy (with its potential for exposure) and indications in the sources that Cleon was really not a successor of Pericles at all but a highly critical contemporary. The Peloponnesian War changed Greece in every way. 23 chapters | Chris has a master's degree in history and teaches at the University of Northern Colorado. flashcard set{{course.flashcardSetCoun > 1 ? Still needing assistance, the Epidamnians went to another powerful city: Corinth. The Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE) was a major conflict amongst the Greek city-states. In this lesson, we'll look at the background of this war and see how a few relatively minor cities contributed to one of Greece's biggest wars. Again a few qualifications are in order. For the Athenians’ part, the famously energetic and meddlesome population did not take kindly to the practical consequences of Periclean strategy that required it to evacuate Attica and move its population behind the fortified walls of Athens, to rely on accumulated capital reserves and on the fleet as an instrument to hold the empire firmly down, and to avoid adding to the empire during wartime. Most of what we know of this comes from the Greek historian Thucydides, who lived through the war and recorded its events (up through the year 411 BCE). Reactions to all this, within the empire and outside it, are hard to gauge. That too called for money and ships, but the Spartans had neither accumulated reserves like Athens nor a proper fleet. One of the largest of these conflicts was the Peloponnesian War, which raged from 431-404 BCE. Athens sided with Corcyra, enraging Corinth, which was allied with Sparta. But as we will see, this Peace of … It was a convoluted and confusing origin, but the Peloponnesian War was underway. The Peloponnesian War was fought between two groups of Greek allies. Athens decided to grant Corcyra an alliance, but only in the case that the city was being attacked. It is, however, hard to be sure if Thucydides’ postponement of the vital point was prompted by outright political bias in favour of Athens or if it was just a manifestation of a “Homeric” tendency to feed in information only at the point where it becomes most relevant). Nothing was the same after the war, and Athens was never to be as powerful. PLAY. On The History of the Peloponnesian War has been divided into the following sections: The First Book [245k] The Second Book [190k] The Third Book [187k] The Fourth Book [220k] Then at Potidaea, a Corinthian colony, the Athenians demanded that the Corinthian magistrates be sent home. Whereas the Spartans’ goal was to liberate Greece from tyranny, which required them to dismantle the Athenian empire, all the Athenians had to do was to avoid such demolition. Athens moved its flocks from Attica across to Euboea, whose economic importance was thus raised further still. Log in or sign up to add this lesson to a Custom Course. Thucydides (c. 460 BC–400 BC) was a general who was exiled for his failure to defend the Greek city of Amphipolis in Thrace. The main ally of Epidamnus, Corcyra refused to help but Corinth did, sparking war between Corcyra and Corinth over colonial control of Epidamnus. That city was an anomaly in being both tributary to Athens and simultaneously subject to direct rule by magistrates sent out annually by Corinth; it clearly was a sensitive spot in international relations. That force, however, was trebled, as a nervous afterthought; no political background is given for the move, which, moreover, emerges only subsequently and in passing during the narrative of events concerning Corcyra itself. To unlock this lesson you must be a Study.com Member. You can test out of the A congress of Spartan allies was convoked to discuss grievances against Athens, and the decision was taken for war. (On another view this belongs in the 450s.) Get access risk-free for 30 days, To learn more, visit our Earning Credit Page. Visit the HSC Ancient History: Exam Prep & Syllabus page to learn more. What was the first battle of the Peloponnesian War? One of the largest of these conflicts was the Peloponnesian War, which raged from 431-404 BCE. Epidamnus was not the strongest of cities, so the people sent ambassadors to a powerful neighbor with a massive navy: Corcyra. credit-by-exam regardless of age or education level. Most of what we know of this comes from the Greek historian Thucydides, who lived through the war and recorded its events (up through the year 411 … THE HISTORY OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR. Its empire began as a small group of city-states, called the Delian League — from the island of Delos, on wh… It should further be noted that the Black Sea, to which, as already mentioned, Pericles led a flamboyant expedition in the Great Gap period, was an area of colonial Megarian settlement; there too one can legitimately infer an Athenian desire to pressure Megara, albeit indirectly. In the military sphere Thucydides is surely wrong to present Pericles as a one-man band. In the north, Potidaea surrendered, and a cleruchy was installed there too, a further Corinthian setback. The second year of the war, 430, began with another invasion of Attica. However, Corcyraean and Corinthian fighting at the Battle of Sybota brought Athens into the conflict. After the war, Sparta was the ruling state of Greece. - Definition and Overview, A Yellow Raft in Blue Water: Summary & Quotes, Free Praxis Math Practice Tests - Praxis Test Prep 2020-2021, Remote Learning: How School Districts Can Help Their Schools and Teachers, Response to Intervention (RTI) in Florida, Tech and Engineering - Questions & Answers, Health and Medicine - Questions & Answers. Test. The two “causes” that occupy the relevant parts of Thucydides’ first, introductory book concern Corcyra and Potidaea. One 4th-century Athenian orator actually dropped a casual remark to the effect that “we went to war in 431 about Aegina.”) Corcyra (present-day Corfu), which had quarreled with Corinth over the Corcyran colony of Epidamnus on the coast of Illyria (a colony in which Corinth also had an interest), appealed to Athens. At the end of this first campaigning year, Pericles delivered an austere but moving speech honouring the fallen men, which has become known as the funeral oration of Pericles. Select a subject to preview related courses: The Potidaeans were confused and scared. As if in recognition that this was a war brought about at the instance of Corinth, much early Athenian naval activity was devoted to stripping Corinth of assets in the northwest—of Sollium, Astacus, and Cephellenia. It would, however, be artificial to write as if the information for this unique period were no better than that available for any other. 3,072,922), capital of Greece, E central Greece, on the plain of Attica, between the Kifisós and Ilissus rivers, near the Saronic Gulf. For the period from 433 to 411 a vastly more-detailed narrative is possible than theretofore, but the reader should be warned that this freak of scale is due to one man, Thucydides, who imposed his view of events on posterity. Sparta’s invasion of Attica set the tone of the first half of the Archidamian War (431–421), named after the Spartan king Archidamus II, unfairly in view of the wariness he is said to have expressed at the outset. credit by exam that is accepted by over 1,500 colleges and universities. Intercepted by the king of the Odrysians, the ambassadors were handed over to Athens, where they were put to death with no pretense at trial. Athens' military campaign against the Peloponnesian League that … This impressed him deeply—and unduly—with the impotence and vulnerability of generals other than Pericles. None of this yet amounted to war with the Peloponnesian League as a whole, but the temperature was as high as it could be, short of that. Peloponnesian War, (431–404 bce), war fought between the two leading city-states in ancient Greece, Athens and Sparta. The war destroyed the economies and brought poverty and sufferings to the state. In the 430s BCE, the people broke into rebellion, overthrew the aristocracy, and established a new democracy. Corinth claimed that Athens was trying to steal its colony, sending troops to fight alongside the Potidaeans. In particular, the Thucydidean Pericles is usually taken to have said that Athens was an education to Greece, but in context he says merely that other Greeks would do well to profit from its political example. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. In 437 the Athenians fulfilled an old ambition by founding a colony at Amphipolis, no doubt on a large scale, though figures for settlers do not exist. Yet there was also an Athenian raid on Methone in Messenia (the later Venetian strong point of Modon), foiled by Brasidas; a morale-boosting raid on the Megarid (such raids were repeated twice a year until 424); and some successful diplomacy in the north, where the Odrysian Thracians were won over. The story of the Peloponnesian War begins in the relatively minor Greek city-state of Epidamnus, which had been dealing with some domestic issues. Athens, even with coined reserves of 6,000 talents at the beginning of the war, could not afford many Potidaeas. Athens, the once superpower, was taken down and was no longer a powerhouse. to 404 B.C. In 478 BC, Greek city-states … No encouragement was given: Sparta was standing by the Thirty Years’ Peace and should be given (a little) credit for doing so. The result was the Battle of Potidaea in 432 BCE. That method, like the Homeric emphasis on heroes, is to some extent literary spotlighting, for at no time was Pericles immune from criticism. They sent ambassadors to Athens to resolve this diplomatically, but also sent ambassadors to Sparta. 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