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Athens vs sparta politically
Sparta versus athens comparisons
Athens vs sparta politically
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Final Paper (Why Sparta Won?) War is an aspect of life where all human entities and instincts come to play only the strongest, smartest, and fittest win the fight. In the ancient world, many conflicts arose leading to wars and chaos, especially in the era of The Peloponnesian War . The Peloponnesian War was one of the most important conflicts in the ancient world, which Sparta won.The Peloponnesian war was started when Athens was found to be tunneling Delian league funds to their own military and city defense ultimately turning most allies against them. Many of which attempted to revolt, when Athens went to control it and did so violently, Sparta was inclined to step in. Sparta, in the end, takes the victory aside all the tribulations they suffered, and they won because of Athenian mistakes, their resilience, great leadership, and strong ground warfare.
The first war begins, each side led by a fearless leader,
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In 465 BC Sparta was hit with an earthquake and left them devastated. Athens sent relief to try and help but Sparta refused. According to Thucydides, Athens felt disrespected in the fact that they were denied help and helped the Helots revolt. Sparta picked itself back up and successfully defended themselves from a post earthquake attack by the Helots. This would not be the last time Athens has been down though. There were many times when Sparta had been controlled by Athens in the war but, Sparta continued to fight. For Example, The Athenian Navy participated in one of the most important naval battles fought in the war called the battle of Naupactus that took place in 429 BC,which Athens won, and this battle drained the Spartans because of the overwhelming size of the Athenian navy. The Athenians captured and slew some of the remaining Spartans. This battle left the Spartans bruised, distraught and even questioning the outcome of the war written by Thucydides in his book The History of The Peloponnesian
Although the Ionian revolt was ultimately unsuccessful, it sparked the anger of Darius, the King of Persia, that the Athenians dared to interfere with his vast empire. Herodotus writes he was so angry that he "ordered one of his servants to say to him three times every day before dinner, 'Sire, remember the Athenians" (Hdt. 5.105.2). Whether Darius really said this is questionable, but it is clear that either to exact venge... ... middle of paper ... ... reeks won a war of unbeatable odds because they had both everything to lose and everything to gain - their very survival.
Although the Spartans and Athenians fought for almost 20 years, there was a time when they lived in harmony. Almost 15 years before any disturbances the Athenians and Spartans fought together in the Persian war. During the Persian war, the Spartans were thriving in their fight against the Persians, however over time the Persians began to grow stronger. After being to lose their fighting streak, the Athenians came in to help the Spartans and bring an end to Persian dominance once and for all (The Delian League, 1). After defeating the Persians in 449 B.C., the...
The Peloponnesian War and the Decline of Leadership in Athens Thucydides set out to narrate the events of what he believed would be a great war—one requiring great power amassed on both sides and great states to carry out. Greatness, for Thucydides, was measured most fundamentally in capital and military strength, but his history delves into almost every aspect of the war, including, quite prominently, its leaders. In Athens especially, leadership was vital to the war effort because the city’s leaders were chosen by its people and thus, both shaped Athens and reflected its character during their lifetimes. The leaders themselves, however, are vastly different in their abilities and their effects on the city. Thucydides featured both Pericles and Alcibiades prominently in his history, and each had a distinct place in the evolution of Athenian empire and the war it sparked between Athens and Sparta.
There are times in history that something will happen and it will defy all logic. It was one of those times when a few Greek city/states joined together and defeated the invasion force of the massive Persian Empire. The Greeks were able to win the Greco-Persian War because of their naval victories over the Persians, a few key strategic victories on land, as well as the cause for which they were fighting. The naval victories were the most important contribution to the overall success against the Persians. The Persian fleet was protecting the land forces from being outflanked and after they were defeated the longer had that protection. While the Greeks had very few overall victories in battle they did have some strategic victories. The Battle of Thermopylae is an example of a strategic success for the Greeks. The morale of the Persian army was extremely affected by the stout resistance put up by King Leonidas and his fellow Spartans. The Greeks fought so hard against overwhelming odds because of what they were fighting for. They were fighting for their country and their freedom. They fought so hard because they did not want to let down the man next to them in the formation. Several things contributed to the Greeks success against the Persian invasion that happened during the Second Greco-Persian War.
Thucydides was right to claim that all wars can be explained by Fear, Honor, and Interest. All Wars are related to the three characteristics as stated by Dr. Nation (Dr. Nation video). The Athenians thought process was that the weak would be ruled by the strong and that was the nature of conflict (Strassler p. 43). Looking at the Peloponnesian war itself will illustrate how fear, honor and interest were involved with how this war developed. The initial unnamed Athenian that made that statement was probably using it to deter war with Sparta when it mostly incited the war (Dr. Nation Video). The Athenians wanted to maintain and sustain their city state but also expand it. They were expanding through their alliances and this is what invoked the
Facing starvation and disease, Athens surrendered in 404BC, along with its allies. Corinth and Thebes demanded that Athens be destroyed and all its citizens enslaved, hovever Sparta decided to take Athens into its own system.
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
The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. "Peloponnesian War (ancient Greek History)."Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica, 24 Dec. 2013. Web. 05 Apr. 2014
Pericles tells the Athenians that the Spartans do not have proper courage. They “bring all their allies with them, whereas [Athens], when [the Athenians] launch an attack abroad, do the job by [themselves]”. Pericles tells them they should rely on loyalty and real courage rather than secret weapons while fighting. He also encourages them by saying their strength comes from the thought of losing Athens, where Sparta’s strength comes from their strict military training and use of outside sources. Pericles is not expressing the entire truth. He says that Athens did not use allies to fight, even when they did in the Battle of Thermopylae. In the Battle of Thermopylae, all of the Greek forces joined together to hold the Persians off. Pericles tells everyone this because it makes it seem like they have more courage than the Spartans because they are not based on the state. In a way, Pericles is offending Athens as well as Sparta because they have some fighting strategies in
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.
... 371 B.C. Sparta faced a critically wounding loss against Thebes. Eventually, all of Sparta’s empire would be destroyed when Philip II of Macedon conquered all of Greece, due to its instability, which “made them vulnerable to a takeover by Macedonia several decades later” (C.S “The Peloponnesian War”.)
The Peloponnesian War is the conflict between the Peloponnesian League, led by Sparta, and the Delian League, led by Athens. Much of our knowledge on the causes and events of the Peloponnesian War, depends on the Athenian Thucydides 460-400 BC, writer of the History of the Peloponnesian War. He served as an Athenian commander in Northern Greece during the early years of the war until the assembly exiled him as he lost an outpost to the enemy. During this exile, he was able to interview witnesses on both sides of the conflict. Unlike Heredotus, he concentrated on contemporary history and presented his account of the war in an annalistic framework that only occasionally diverts from chronological order.
The definition of victory is one of the most complex problems of strategy, but it is also one of the most relevant as it is crucial to define the ends of every strategy formulation, the consequences of every conflict and the cost-effectiveness prospective when engaging in one. Victory is a treacherous concept subject to so many factors and subjectivities that its achievement is sometimes claimed by all the belligerents even if it is often hard to apply to any of them .
In Ancient Greece, Athens is more superior than Sparta because of their government, economic structure, and cultural values. Athens allows people to be a part of government, is friendly to other city-states, and is open for trade. While Sparta has only a few people ruling, goes to war with other city-states, and is isolated from them.
Beginning in 492 B.C., a series of wars erupted, appropriately entitled the Persian Wars, which lasted around thirteen years. Because of the constant battles between the Persians, led by Xerxes, and Greece, both civilization started growing weaker and weaker. When the wars ended, the Greeks were successful at defeating the Persians. However, being in a weakened state caused the Greek city- states (mainly Athens against Sparta) to fight amongst themselves in order to have more influence over the rest of the city-states. This type of war was termed the Peloponnesian War and continued from 431B.C. to 404 B.C. (History of Greece:The Golden Age of Greece) and