what led to athenian defeat in the peloponnesian war?

Instead, a sneak attack by the citizens of Plataea would set in motion arguably the greatest war of Greek history. What has become known as The First Peloponnesian War (c. 460-446 BCE) was less intense than the second and fought mainly between Athens and Corinth with occasional intervention by Sparta. During this conflict, Greek warfare evolved from an originally limited and formalized form of conflict, to all-out struggles between city-states, complete with large-scale atrocities. The Athenians, however, showed up uninvited to this congress, and a great debate, recorded by Thucydides, took place. However, this would not last long. The dominance of the hoplite on the battlefield was also threatened by the deployment of combined arms using mixed troops - hoplites, light infantry and cavalry - a tactic which became ever more widespread. In short, an envoy of 300 Thebans went to Plataea to help a group of elites overthrow the leadership in Plataea. Instead, the empire was relegated to the islands throughout the Aegean. This meant Athens had to increase its tribute demands on its allies throughout the Aegean, which strained its relationship with the many of the members of the Delian League/Athenian Empire. This near breakdown in cooperation took place when Samos, a powerful ally of Athens at the time, chose to revolt against the Delian League. Please note that content linked from this page may have different licensing terms. The Spartans saw this as a major opportunity to perhaps once and for all put an end to Athenian power in the region, and they called a congress of their allies in the Peloponnesian Alliance to determine if the time had indeed come to resume conflict against the Athenians. This, plus the Spartan decision to not require soldiers to return home each year for the harvest, allowed the Spartans to keep the pressure on Athens as it ran campaigns throughout its territories. The First Peloponnesian War ended in an arrangement between Sparta and Athens, which was ratified by the “Thirty Years’ Peace” (winter of 446–445 BC). The Peloponnesian War. This next period of the Peloponnesian War, which took place between 421 BCE and 413 BCE, is often referred to at The Interlude. By 460 BCE, Athens and Sparta were essentially at war, although they rarely fought one another directly. Before the Peloponnesian War, the city-states of Greece had worked together to fight off the Persians. Athens’ new offensive strategy was to attack Sparta at its weakest point: its dependence on helots. Despite losing to Sparta in the Peloponnesian War, Athens continued to be an important cultural and economic center throughout Roman times, and it is the capital of the modern nation of Greece. libi052207 12/21/2018 History Middle School +5 pts. Importance of the Peloponnesian War . A growing appetite for war amongst the male Greek youth that was the result of the legendary stories told about the Greco-Persian Wars. B, and Russell Meiggs. The Athenians responded and the two fought the Battle of Tangara, which Athens won, giving them control over large portions of Boeotia. He was successful, and in 415 BCE, he sailed west to Sicily with 100 ships and thousands of men. However, instead of retaliating at Pylos, the Spartans decided to copy the Athenians’ strategy and attack deep in their own territory where they might be least expecting it. His special interests include pottery, architecture, world mythology and discovering the ideas that all civilizations share in common. The ancient Greek historian Thucydides, who many consider the world’s first true historian, spent time traveling to the various theaters of war to interview generals and soldiers alike, and he also analyzed many of the long- and short-term causes of the Peloponnesian war, an approach still taken by military historians today. Some territory changed hands, and many of the lands conquered by Brasidas were returned to Athens, although some were able to maintain a level of political autonomy. Yet perhaps the biggest impact of the Peloponnesian War was felt by the citizens of ancient Greece. This is due to the fact that the destruction from the Peloponnesian War weakened and divided the Greeks for years to come, eventually allowing the Macedonians an opportunity to conquer them in the mid-4th century BCE. However, these negotiations failed, and fighting resumed. After the revolt in Boeotia, several island city-states that had been part of the Delian League decided to rebel, the most significant being Megara. Then, The Four Hundred lost control of Athens, surrendering to a much larger group of oligarchs knowns as “the 5,000.” But in the midst of all this, Alcibiades, who had previously defected to Sparta during the Syracuse campaign, had been trying to earn his way back into the good graces of the Athenian elite. Other things, such as restrictions on how long Spartan soldiers could be away at war, also contributed to the lack of a decisive result from this initial part of the Peloponnesian war. This gave Sparta an initial edge in the Peloponnesian war, but Athens hadn’t committed anywhere near enough troops for this defeat to have a significant effect on the overall conflict. the dominance of Macedonia. By this point, Sparta had been suing for peace for some time, and when Nicias approached Spartan leadership, he was able to negotiate an end to this part of the conflict. In the same year Pericles was ousted and Athens sued for peace only to be rejected by Sparta. In the 5th century BCE Sparta and Athens were the two major powers in Greece and it was perhaps inevitable that their spheres of influence would overlap and cause conflict. The Greco-Persian War took place over fifty years between 499 and 449 BCE. When Athens decided to move, the superiority of its navy meant Melos stood little chance of resisting. However, while this strategy was sound in logic, it ended up not leading to a decisive Spartan victory. This colony, which had been ruled by a Corcyrean oligarchy since its inception, had become wealthy and was seeking to install a democracy. At the time, Sparta had the most formidable army in the Greek world, yet it continuously refused to commit a significant amount of troops. to defeat the Persians, two large coalitions came into being. It looked very much like both sides were manoeuvring for a re-start. Ancient History Encyclopedia Foundation is a non-profit organization. Log in. They followed the Spartans into this narrow stretch of water, and then the Spartans turned around and attacked, routing the fleet and capturing thousands of soldiers. An important component of the Peloponnesian War is Athenian imperial expansion. As a member of political factions within Athens that most desired war and expansion, he almost immediately changed the defensive strategy Pericles had devised. Greek Hoplites [Artist's Impression]by The Creative Assembly (Copyright). The Athenians supported the government in power, and this meant the Athenians and the Spartans were fighting once again. At this meeting of the various heads of state in the Greek world, the Corinthians shamed Sparta for standing on the sidelines while Athens continued to try and bring free Greek city-states under its control, and it warned that Sparta would be left without any allies if it continued its inaction. It’s believed somewhere around one-third to two-thirds of the Athenian population died during three years of plague. Emboldened by their role as the leader of the Delian alliance, the Athenian assembly was keen to find ways to expand its sphere of influence, and Melos, a tiny island state in the southern Aegean, was a perfect target, and it’s likely the Athenians saw its resistance from their control as stain on their reputation. The Peloponnesians then used battering rams (embole) against the walls but the defenders once again thwarted the attackers by dropping large beams on chains to break the rams. Sieges were another common feature of the Peloponnesian War. Peloponnesian states like Elis, Tegea, and at times even a reconstituted Mantinea and Argos provided hoplites for a Spartan-led enterprise or later occupation at Decelea. However, this move cost the Argives the support of the Corinthians, who were not willing to make such an affront to their longtime allies on the Peloponnese. Sparta was also suspicious of the Athenians' project to rebuild their Long Wall fortifications which protected their harbour of Piraeus. Athens went ahead and laid siege to the city anyway, shortly after, also issuing the Megarian Decrees. It’s true we can look at the Peloponnesian War today and ask “why?” But when we consider it in the context of the time, it’s clear how Sparta felt threatened by Athens and how Athens felt it necessary to expand. was fought between the rival Greek city-states of Athens and Sparta for dominance in Greece. Recognizing the supremacy of Sparta’s infantry, the Athenians, under the leadership of Pericles, decided it was in their best interest to take a defensive strategy. However, on the eve of departure Alcibiades was implicated in serious accusations of impiety and was stripped of command. However, this strategy left much of Attica, the peninsula on which Athens is located, completely exposed. The scene was the city of Plataea, famous for the Battle of Plataea in which the Greeks won a decisive victory over the Persians. Now unable to man another fleet, with the Delian League disbanded and Athens itself under siege, the Athenians had no option but to sue for peace. The attempted invasion of Sicily was a complete disaster for Athens. At the end of this conference held among the major Greek city-states, it was clear that war between Athens and Sparta was going to happen, and just one year later, in 431 BCE, fighting between the two Greek powers resumed. The first conflict to arise during The Interlude actually came from within the Peloponnesian League. As a result, the Peloponnesian War was concluded. Peace lasted much less than thirty years, and soon after the two sides agreed to put down their weapons, The Peloponnesian War broke out and the Greek world was changed forever. For only $5 per month you can become a member and support our mission to engage people with cultural heritage and to improve history education worldwide. The main city on Sicily at the time was Syracuse, and the Athenians hoped to gather support for their campaign against Syracuse from both the non-aligned Greeks on the island as well as the native Sicilians. Many states sided with Athens, notably those from Ionia, and together they formed the Delian League sometime around 478 BCE. This defeat led to Athenian surrender. This event, while somewhat random, help set into motion 27 years of conflict that we now understand as the Peloponnesian War. The last part of the Peloponnesian War started in 412 BCE, a year after Athens’ failed campaign to Sicily, and it lasted until 404 BCE. However, the Plataeans responded to this threat by building even higher walls. However, under Kleon and Nikias, the Athenians enjoyed a successful campaign in the Corinthian Gulf in 429 BCE and hopes for an early Spartan victory now seemed hopelessly ambitious. They were essential to the city-state’s prosperity, yet because they were denied many of the rights of Spartan citizens, they rebelled frequently and caused considerable political unrest throughout Sparta. More specifically, the impasse between the two sides was largely the result of Sparta having a strong ground force but weak navy and Athens having a powerful navy but less effective ground force. But he still had many enemies, and after being sent to campaign in Asia, a plot was hatched to have him killed. If a city did finally fall after a siege then, by Dept. Pylos, which is located on the southwestern coast of the Peloponnese, became an Athenian stronghold after the Athenians won a decisive battle there in 425 BCE. Athens also tried to exclude another colony ... the defeat at Sicily, Athens regained some strength, and the battles continued. Join now. Lazenby, John F. The Defence of Greece: 490-479 BC. The principal Spartan strategy was to annually attack Athenian lands, starting in 431 BCE, creating as much destruction as possible such as burning farms, chopping down olive trees and vineyards. A plague killed competent leaders, Athenian navy was weakened by Sparta What phrase best describes the Battle of Marathon? A great example of this occurred during the Sicilian campaign. Sparta seems to have been particularly alarmed at the growing power of Athens, able to build an ever-bigger fleet of ships thanks to tributes from its allies and dependants. However, instead of returning home to certain death, he fled to Sparta and alerted the Spartans of the Athenians’ attack on Sparta. He ran campaigns in Boeotia and Aetolia to drive back the Spartan forces stationed there, and he was able to have some success. One of the few major cities located on the Peloponnese that was not part of the Peloponnesian League, Argos had a long-standing rivalry with Sparta, but during The Interlude they had been subjected to a non-aggression pact with Sparta. The Peloponnesian War, one of the most significant events in ancient Greek history, enveloped the city-states of the ancient Greek world, forever changing the region. A New History of the Peloponnesian War. 1. Desperate to expand, but knowing that doing so on the Greek mainland would almost certainly lead to war with the Spartans, Athens began looking further afield for territories it could place under its control. Located between Athens and Sparta on the Isthmus of Corinth, the Corinthians had a powerful fleet and a vibrant economy, which meant they were often able to challenge Sparta for control of the Peloponnesian League. Athens conquered Chalcis, a city-state near the Corinthian Gulf which gave Athens direct access to the Peloponnese, putting Sparta in tremendous danger. 1. Sparta became the dominant power, but its success was short-lived as its territorial ambitions led to the start of the Corinthian Wars in 396 BC. Once this happened, Athens feared the Spartans would make a move against them, so they began reaching out to other Greek city-states to secure alliances in the event there was an outbreak of fighting. There were some territorial concessions on both sides but principally the situation returned to the pre-war status quo. The Athenians committed a small defense force, and it proved to be rather effective, as Spartan soldiers were not able to break through until 427 BCE. The plague also claimed the life of Pericles, and this passive, defensive strategy died with him, which opened the door to a wave of Athenian aggression on the Peloponnese. Furthermore, during this battle, the Athenians managed to capture 420 Spartan soldiers, largely because the Spartans got trapped on an island just outside Pylos’ harbor. But no matter which way we look at, this tremendous conflict between two of the most powerful cities of the ancient world played an important role in writing ancient history and in shaping the world we call home today. To achieve success different opinions about what to do: the Peloponnesian War the! Was written by Mark cartwright, M. ( 2018, May 02.. Is the Publishing Director at AHE were another common feature of the peace agreement city anyway, shortly,. The city of Decelea what led to athenian defeat in the peloponnesian war? which Athens won, giving them control over portions... 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