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History of the peloponnesian war influence
History of the peloponnesian war influence
History of the peloponnesian war influence
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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 roots of the Peloponnesian war can be traced long before 431 BCE, when it officially started. It can be traced back to as early as the Persian Wars, where the Athenians had found their home burned by the hands of the Persians. That disaster left the Athenians with no home and no sanctuary. Even though that was a defeated battle amidst a victorious war, they still had reason to believe that the Persians will come back for more. Apprehensive at the thought of having their city burned yet another time, the Athenians knew they had to do something. Naturally, they chose to get help. Gathering up the neighboring city-states around them, the Athenians formed the Delian League; an alliance working directly to defend the whole of Greece from Persian attacks (Kagan 8). In the beginning, this worked out well; everybody got their say on what went on in the league, and everybody was satisfied. However, the Athenians saw that if they were to take more power, the members of the league would not be strong enough to resist. Therefore, that was exactly what they did; they took more and more power until what was the Delian League became the Athenian Empire (Kagan 8). As they grew even more powerful and wealthy, their neighbors of Sparta and the Peloponnesian League, Sparta's alliance, could not help but notice (Kagan 13). In 431 BCE, lighted b...
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...a trail of destruction in its wake, this war changed the entire course of Ancient Greek history. Even though there has been countless wars in Greek history, the Peloponnesian War was definitely the one with the most consequences.
Works Cited
Decarlo, Nicole. "Classical Period, Greek." Encyclopedia of World History: Ancient World.
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Hanson, Victor Davis. The Reader's Companion to Millitary History. New York: Houghton
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Hanson, Victor Davis. The Wars of the Ancient Greeks. New York: Cassell, 1999.
Kagan, Donald. The Peloponnesian War. New York: Viking, 2003.
Ober, Josiah. "Peloponnesian War." Encyclopedia Americana. 1998 ed. Danbury, Connecticut:
Grolier Incorporated, 1997.
Ancient Greek tragedies and the Peloponnesian War were similar in one huge way. They both portrayed “hubris.” Athens was very hubris in the Peloponnesian War against Sparta because they thought they were going to win and sent out most of their army to defeat Sparta.
The stunning Greek defeat of the Persians, the specter of which lurks behind the events of the Peloponnesian Wars, was for Herodotus proof of the superiority of Hellenic form of government and way of life, and Herodotus ends his history at this pinnacle of Greek history. Thucydides then accepts the task of chronicling Greece’s unraveling from a position as the dominant power of the Mediterranean, and a center of cultural, technological, and political development to the final result of the Peloponnesian Wars—a fractured, demoralized, and dependent Greece that lies wide open to foreign conquest. This result is, for Thucydides, apparent from the beginning of the conflict. Greece can only dominate when the balance of power between Athens and Sparta is maintained, and the destruction of either is tantamount to the destruction of the whole. An accurate understanding of the national characters of Athens and Sparta makes it clear which of the two will ultimately be the victor of a long, arduous military struggle, but the same understanding of national character makes it equally apparent that the one which can dominate militarily cannot lead Greece. The speeches made at the First Lacedaemonian Congress emphasize not only the character of the two nations in conflict, but more broadly, the inevitability of Hellenic demise as a result of this conflict.
One event that caused Social tension in Athens during the fifth-century B.C.E, was known as the second Peloponnesian war (461 B.C.E.). Ancient sources from this period including, Epitaphios Logos and Lysistrata, when coupled with additional evidence, reveal social tensions Athenians confronted during this time.
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The major theme that comes out clearly in the text is the theme of warfare and glorious death. Right from the beginning of his book, Thucydides, writes the story of the war between the Athenians and the Spartans. The theme of warfare is therefore evidenced by the Athenians preparation, the author says, ‘…beginning at the moment that it broke out, and believing that it would be a great war and more worthy of relation than any other that had preceded.’ This shows that the war that was to start was a unique one that had never happened before in history, in Thucydides opinion. This to me shows a bit of an exaggeration but more importantly this dramatic portrayal of the Peloponnesian war shows that war was seen as a part of life in Athens. In the text, we don’t find Thucydides describing war as being dark, catastrophic, or destructive which is how we would depict war nowadays. Instead we find him describing the war as this huge event that will go down in history as the greatest war to be fought.
The Peloponnesian War is widely known as the second war between the Athenian and Spartan coalitions. In Thucydides'narratives on the war, he described that the war took place during a period when the Greek world was divided into two great alignments each led by either Athens or Sparta, with both sides at the height of their powers.
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 skirmishes from 460-445 effectively ending in a draw. Major fighting in the Peloponnesian War occurred from 431-421 and ended in Athenian victory. Renewed conflict raged from 413-404, ultimately concluding in Spartan victory.
“The conflict of Athens and Sparta is supposed to serve as a lesson for what can happen to any people in any war in any age” (Hanson, 7). How Thucydides was right when he made this statement, when you compare the Peloponnesian War and the Cold War, the similarities are striking. Even though these wars occurred thousands of years apart the are very similar. They both lasted for many decades and even though the Cold War had not involved any fighting it has themes that echo all the way back to the Peloponnesian War where its occupants fought with crud weapons compared to today’s modern technology. The Peloponnesian War and the Cold War can be compared to the events leading up to the war, because of their common ambition in that the nations involved
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.
The Peloponnesian War (431-404 B.C.) was a conflict between the Athenian Empire and the Peloponnesian League led by Sparta that resulted in the end of the Golden Age of Athens. The events of the war were catalogued by the ancient historian Thucydides in The History of the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides’ writings showed the ancient Greek belief that there is a parallel between the city-state and the character of its citizens; in order for the city-state to be successful, its citizens must be virtuous. Thucydides did not believe that the true cause of the Peloponnesian War were the immediate policies of the Athenian Empire against the city-states in the Peloponnesian League but rather the fundamental differences in the character of the two city-states
It was a series of consequential events, spurred on by democratic failure, not one key turning point, that resulted in the decisive defeat of the Athenians by the Peloponnesians, with the aid of Persia. Because of democratic fickleness, with or without Pericles the Athenians were doomed for defeat, and therefore the death of Pericles was not the key turning point, rather it was only a factor which determined the length of the Peloponnesian War.
The Peloponnesian War was between the Greek cities of Athens and Sparta due to the growing tensions that continued to grow between the two cities that eventually came to a breaking point. The Peloponnesian War, which can be divided into three phases known as: The Archidamian War, The Sicilian Expedition and The Decelean War, is one of the greatest event in Greek history and an analysis of the causes and effects of this war will give us a better understanding for how the cities of Athens and Sparta came to war and the impact it left behind.
The Peloponnesian War took place between Athens and Sparta during 431-403 BCE. War remodeled the entire Greek state. The Athenian empire, which was considered the stronger side of the two, was reduced to a vulnerable slave of Sparta. After the war Sparta was over the state of Greece. The war destroyed the economies and brought sufferings to the state. Throughout the war many events like Athens growing in power, bullying of allies and neutral cities, and their refusal to negotiate with each other’s allies along with plague were to blame.
As once stated by Edmund Burke, “the greater the power, the more dangerous the abuse”. In the year 416 BC, the small island of Milos, with all its inhabitants, was perturbed following an invasion by powerful Athenian forces, proving Burke’s theory to be true. In The History of the Peloponnesian War, the Athenian invasion of Milos, as well as the great “Melian Dialogue” is recounted by Athenian general and historian, Thucydides. While the Athenian invasion ultimately turned deadly, historical context is imperative to understanding what provoked such a notable attack. In 416 BC, Athens, operating as an empire, led an invasion on Melos. The Peloponnesian War was fought predominately between the Delian League and the Peloponnesian league, led by
It is the fall of the Athenian Empire, which is a result of the social, moral, financial, and political impacts of war. By the end of the Peloponnesian war, both Sparta and Athens had suffered considerable losses. Although the outcome of the Peloponnesian war may be called a Spartan victory, the main consequence of the war was the end of Greek power dominating the ancient world. Neither Sparta nor Athens fully recovered to its original height of power that it held before the Peloponnesian war (Lecture 13). The absence of the Greek superpower opened the door for a new dominating force to rise in the ancient